One Poem in Italian by Angela Caputo with English Translation by Bruce Hunter

 

NEL VOLTO DELLA GUERRA 

Dipinge il pittore
l’ombra bruciante del male.
Attaccano tanti cobra
dalle fauci spalancate
un volto senza armatura e pelle.
Nella bocca, negli occhi,
teschi che racchiudono
all’infinito altri teschi.
L’espressione è morta.
Riemerge un’impronta,
innocente, dal deserto del Sahara.
Sullo sfondo, un cielo terso
di speranza o indifferenza.

 

Angela Caputo

IN THE FACE OF WAR

The painter paints
the burning shadow of the evil.
Many cobras attack
with gaping jaws
a face without armor and skin.
In the mouth, in the eyes,
skulls enclosing
infinitely other skulls.
The expression is dead.
An handprint reemerges,
innocently, from the Sahara Desert.
In the background, a clear sky
of hope or indifference.

 

Translated by Bruce Hunter

Angela Caputo was born in Bari in 1985. She graduated with Master Degree cum laude in American, 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 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.

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.