Spazio spazio io voglio, tanto spazio
per dolcissima muovermi ferita;
voglio spazio per cantare crescere
errare e saltare il fosso
della divina sapienza.
Spazio datemi spazio
ch’io lanci un urlo inumano,
quell’urlo di silenzio negli anni
che ho toccato con mano.
*
Paura dei tuoi occhi
Paura dei tuoi occhi,
di quel vertice puro
entro cui batte il pensiero,
paura del tuo sguardo
nascosto velluto d’algebra
col quale mi percorri,
paura delle tue mani
calamite leggere
che chiedono linfa,
paura dei tuoi ginocchi
che premono il mio grembo
e poi ancora paura
sempre sempre paura,
finché il mare sommerge
questa mia debole carne
e io giaccio sfinita
su te che diventi spiaggia
e io che divento onda
che tu percuoti e percuoti
con il tuo remo d’Amore.
*
Ho trovato il mio momento preciso,
delirio di pace,
piccolo silenzioso uccello
che ho nelle mani ferite.
Ho le stigmate e da sempre,
da quando cioè ho peccato
contro la dura sorte
con un momento d’amore.
Addio addio mio chiostro,
mia dimora precisa,
ti lascerò per gli alberi
per le ginestre e i fiori,
ma il tuo avello terreno
lo porterò nel mio grembo,
dentro le mie turgide mammelle
che sempre allattano gli angeli
da quando io fui generata.
*
Mi sono innamorata
delle mie stessi ali d’angelo,
delle mie nari che succhiano la notte,
mi sono innamorata di me
e dei miei tormenti.
Un erpice che scava dentro le cose,
o forse fatta donzella
ho perso le mie sembianze.
Come sei nudo, amore,
nudo e senza difesa:
io sono la vera cetra
che ti colpisce nel petto
e ti dà larga resa.
da Vuoto d’amore
Alda Merini
Listen to:
The poems in this selection are drawn from Vuoto d’amore (Emptied of Love; Einaudi, 1991). Merini wrote with a simplicity that conceals the philosophical, mystical, and theological depths of her verse. Throughout the massive output of the Milanese poet—extensive in time and ink—carnality and spirituality are two recurrent themes that are distinctive marks of Merini’s poetic universe. These themes are rooted in Christian iconography and mysticism, yet they are filtered through Merini’s experience.
Merini’s poetics disrupt the dualism embedded in Western thought—mind and body, spirit and flesh, masculine and feminine, human and animal—by breaking it open and pointing at its limitedness, incompleteness, and inaccuracy.
Her early work dwells on the painful disjunction between body and soul, frequently circling around themes of death, lost love, and bodily transcendence. Later poems bear witness to her experience of being hospitalized and the spiritual revelations that emerged from it. Vuoto d'Amore is part of a phase in her oeuvre, in which the body begins to become a site not merely of suffering but also of mystical encounters—“the edge,” as philosopher Richard Kearney writes, “where the human meets worlds that exceed and entreat it.”
The difficulty of translating Merini lies in preserving the ecstatic and oracular nature of her voice, its precision and lyricism. Her frequent use of anaphora, inversion, and sermonic rhythm gives her verse a lullaby-like musicality that I have sought to echo in English. These translations attempt to retain both the rawness and refinement of Merini’s line—the voice of a poet who, as Franca Pellegrini notes, understood her gift as one that bore within it the force of liberation.
Merini’s poetics disrupt the dualism embedded in Western thought—mind and body, spirit and flesh, masculine and feminine, human and animal—by breaking it open and pointing at its limitedness, incompleteness, and inaccuracy.
Her early work dwells on the painful disjunction between body and soul, frequently circling around themes of death, lost love, and bodily transcendence. Later poems bear witness to her experience of being hospitalized and the spiritual revelations that emerged from it. Vuoto d'Amore is part of a phase in her oeuvre, in which the body begins to become a site not merely of suffering but also of mystical encounters—“the edge,” as philosopher Richard Kearney writes, “where the human meets worlds that exceed and entreat it.”
The difficulty of translating Merini lies in preserving the ecstatic and oracular nature of her voice, its precision and lyricism. Her frequent use of anaphora, inversion, and sermonic rhythm gives her verse a lullaby-like musicality that I have sought to echo in English. These translations attempt to retain both the rawness and refinement of Merini’s line—the voice of a poet who, as Franca Pellegrini notes, understood her gift as one that bore within it the force of liberation.
Alda Merini (1931–2009) was an Italian poet from Milan. She began writing poetry as a child and published her first poems when she was a teenager. Her precocious talent was noticed and praised by authors such as Eugenio Montale and Pier Paolo Pasolini. What seemed to be a brilliant poetic career was temporarily halted by Merini’s mental health issues and her subsequent commitment to the Paolo Pini Psychiatric Hospital in Milan from 1965 to 1972, which was followed by periods of freedom and brief hospital stays. After a long silence following the publication of the collection Tu sei Pietro (You are Peter; Giovanni Scheiwiller, 1962), Merini published her masterpiece, La Terra Santa (The Holy Land; Giovanni Scheiwiller, 1984). She was the recipient of several important literary prizes, including the Premio Librex Montale and Premio Viareggio, and was also nominated for the Nobel Prize. Merini continued to write and publish copiously until the end. She died in her beloved Milan.
a. Monti is a cross-disciplinary poet and translator based between Berlin and New York. They are an Associate Editor at Litmus Press and hold an MFA in writing from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. Monti has taught seminars and workshops on performance writing, poetry, and experimental sound work; they have presented their work in the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom, including at The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church (New York), Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), and The Austrian Cultural Forum. Monti works with English, German, and Italian. They were born in an elevator in Rome, Italy, going up to the third floor.
