By Literary Hub | Created at 2026-08-25 09:33:46 | Updated at 2026-09-03 16:08:11
1 week ago
From the Collection Emerging from the Winter Sea
Storditi dalla nostalgia, confusi dai sogni, con i teli da bagno pieni di vento, con la rapida incompleta visione di una casa al mattino. Laggiú nell’aria il ronzio dell’aspirapolvere sui tappeti e i tonfi dei tappeti contro i muri. Nelle lunghe ore di un temporale di aprile prima che vengano a voltarci di fianco e che spalanchino le vetrate alle visite. Allora cambiano luci e rumori: restano il muro sbiancato dall’acqua, l’alto soffitto sopra le teste, i passi cauti nei corridoi.
Non difesa, non quiete
non la voce degli esseri umani
ma la pianta spostata davanti al balcone e vetri aperti alla pioggia.
Oltre l’albero e il tetto
alte case sprangate e lampade accanto a tavoli (ora tondi, ora quadrati)
piccoli tavoli
su cui si squadernano carte. L’acqua scorreva, non la grandine; nessuna furia nel rombo del tuono l’albero si piegava bianco
il tetto scuro e perfetto
asse di una incarnale geometria la città divisa dall’aria.
*
Dazed by nostalgia, confused by dreams, bath towels full of wind, the quick incomplete picture of a house in the morning. Down there in the air the buzz of the vacuum cleaner on carpets and the thumping of carpets against the walls. In the long hours of an April storm before they come to turn us over on our sides and the glass doors are thrown open to visitors. Then the light and the sounds change: the walls remain whitened by the rain, the ceiling high above our heads, the steps cautious in the halls.
Not defensive, not quiet
not the voices of human beings
but the plant moved in front of the balcony and windows open to the rain.
Beyond the tree and the roof
tall houses with doors shut and lamps near tables (some round, some square)
small tables
on which cards are played.
The water flowed, unlike the hail; no fury in the rumble of thunder the tree bent into whiteness
the roof dark and perfect
axis of an incarnate geometry the city separated from the air.
_______________________________
Excerpted from Emerging from the Winter Sea by Antonella Anedda; translated from the Italian by Wallis Wilde-Menozzi. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Copyright © 2026 by Donzelli editore and Antonella Anedda. Translation copyright Wallis Wilde-Menozzi. All rights reserved.
