One Poem by Angela Caputo - Translated by Bruce Hunter from Italian to English

 

WITH MINO ON THE BICYCLE

 

I invented your name

when I saw you for the first time

sat on the top bar of an old bicycle

with the wind in your face and a relaxed smile.

Your elderly father pedals with the strength

of someone who has learned to challenge destiny.

And with the vigor of a man who knows 

how to extricate himself from it.

Staggering, you walk away together along the avenue

and while you, powerful boy,

with sweet almond eyes,

enchanted yourself as you gaze at the sun,

your father's large calloused hands 

press on the handlebars,

in perpetual search

for a beautiful balanced progression.

 

Translated by Bruce Hunter

CON MINO IN BICICLETTA

Ho inventato il tuo nome
quando ti ho visto per la prima volta
seduto sul tubo di una vecchia bicicletta
con il vento in faccia e un sorriso disteso.
Tuo padre, anziano, pedala con la forza
di chi ha imparato a sfidare il destino.
E con il vigore di un uomo che sa
come districarsi in esso.
Barcollando, vi allontanate insieme lungo il viale
e mentre tu, ragazzo possente,
dai dolci occhi di mandorla,
ti incanti porgendo lo sguardo al sole,
le grandi mani callose di tuo padre
premono sul manubrio,
nella perpetua ricerca
di un bellissimo avanzare in equilibrio.

Bruce Hunter is the author of 12 books.  His poetry, fiction and non-fiction have appeared in over 100 blogs and journals in India, China, the U.K., the U.S., Canada and Italy. His award-winning novel In the Bear’s House was  just reissued and also published in Italy as Nella casa dell’orso.

Angela Caputo was born in Bari in 1985. She graduated with Master Degree cum laude in American and European Languages and Cultures from the University of Bari. Afterwards she pursued a Postgraduate Diploma in Literary Translation of Postcolonial Texts from the University of Pisa. She contributed writing critical essays for the literary reviews “Soglie”, “El Ghibli” as well as for the literary review of compared poetry “Semicerchio”. Since September 2017 she is a permanent French teacher. She translated for “El Ghibli” poems of the francophone authors August Bonel and Ernest Pépin. For the publishing house KANAGA, she translated into Italian the poetical text “Le Psaume à deux visages” written by the francophone author Catherine Boudet. She was ranked second (section A – single poems) within the First Edition of the Internation Prize of Poetry, Fiction and Non-Fiction – KANAGA and first (section A - single poems) within the second Edition of the same Prize.