POETRY TRAVELS with Anna Blasiak and Lisa Kalloo: CATS BORN IN WALUTS by Tiziano Fratus, translated by Eleonora Matarrese

Not all the children know cats are born
in walnuts, do you understand? In walnuts.
Just break their shell at midnight, if there
is a full moon, to see the small seed of a
white cat that prepares the idea of birth.
If instead the moon is dark the tiny beast will
be black. Spotted, freckled, two-colored if
the moon grows or decreases. The catometers
call it walnuty Immanence. Not all the children
do know walnuts are the incubators of cats,
that is why they prefer to hide them underneath
their pillow, since they have long stopped
to believe in the good fairy and in the arrival
of the postman with his red hat. All that displays
itself intact must be preserved with loyal care

By Tiziano Fratus

Translated by Eleonora Matarrese

From Tiziano Fratus’s Forest Heart / Cuor di Foresta (Michikusa Publishing Luxembourg, 2023)

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Tiziano Fratus grew up in north Italian landscapes, among the great plain and the mountains. In twenty years he published a wide jungle of words – travelogues, meditation books, tales, essays, collections of poems – some by Italian leading publishing houses as Mondadori, Feltrinelli, Bompiani, Laterza and Einaudi, some by indipendent ones as Aboca, Ediciclo and Lindau. His poems have been translated into eleven languages and published in twenty and more countries while his photography has shown in solo exhibitions. Fratus is columnist for newspapers and collaborates with national television broadcast, RAI.

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Eleonora Matarrese studied Foreign Languages and Literatures, with a specialisation on Germanic Philology and English Language History. She teaches Phytoalimurgia and Ethnobotany at the University of Bari. She researches medieval manuscripts: herbals and writings of popular phytotherapy. She collaborates with the Department of Germanic Philology of Queen’s University, Belfast, UK, teaching Phytoalimurgia in medieval Germanic manuscripts. She is the director of i Skogen!, a research-focused magazine covering gastronomy, folklore, history, and ethnobotany, she is also the author of La Cuoca Selvatica (Bompiani). She is a professional forager who writes and publishes in both scientific and popular journals. Beinecke 408: The Voynich Manuscript (2023) is her latest publication. She works as a Chef for the Slow Food Alliance and promotes food education initiatives with Slow Food Education across Europe; and works as an expert of ethnobotany for Rai Tre – Geo.

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Photo by Lisa Kalloo

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Check out the Poetry Travels book list on bookshop.org.

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Read previous poems in the Poetry Travels series:

CYBORG by Volker Braun, translated by Karen Leeder and David Constantine

AVATAR by Laura Fusco, translated by the author and Alan Dent

SCATTERED by Floriana Ferro, translated by the author

OX AND MANDARIN // A COMPENDIUM by Milla van der Have

ROYAL PEACOCK by Veroniki Dalakoura, translated by John Taylor

SNAKE DEATHS by Monika Herceg, translated by Marina Veverec

ON THE WAY TO THE SHOP by Marija Dejanović, translated by Vesna Maric

*** (MY LOVE, YOU SAID YOU WERE A WOLF) by Ruzanna Voskanyan, translated by Nieri Avanessian

RED ZONE by Iryna Tsilyk, translated by Vitaly Chernetsky

THE SPIDER by Danae Sioziou, translated by Panagiotis Kechagias and Mania Meziti

UNTITLED by Johanna Venho, translated by Anselm Hollo

THE KNOWLEDGE OF EVERYTHING by Eleni Cay, translated by the Author

ALIBI by Ewa Brzoza Birk, translated by Anna Blasiak

PATIENCE by Ziba Kirbassi, translated by Stephen Watts

HARLEQUIN by Arjola Zadrima, translated by Vlora Konushevci

SIRENS by Victoria Amelina, translated by Anatoly Kudryavitsky

JOB: A WOMAN by Dominika Lewicka-Klucznik, translated by Anna Blasiak

BAGS by Blerina Rogova Gaxha, translated by Vlora Konushevci

TONGUEFISH by Yolanda Castaño, translated by Keith Payne

WHAT DO YOU NEED by Friederike Mayröcker, translated by Christina Daub

A WORK OF BIOGRAPHY by Max Jacob, translated by Ian Seed

UNTITLED POEM by Ivano Fermini, translated by Ian Seed

AGAINST TRAVEL. FOR DANA by Rachel Levitsky

LIGHT by Vasyl Makhno, translated by Olena Jennings

A MESSAGE FROM THE ISLE OF WIGHT by Wioletta Greg, translated by Maria Jastrzębska and Anna Blasiak

HOME by Nataša Sardžoska, translated by the Author

ONLY THE BEGINNING COUNTS (4) by Jan Baeke, translated by Antoinette Fawcett

*** (RABID WINDS) by Gerður Kristný, translated by Rory McTurk

ANSWER TO THE PRAYERS by Vainius Bakas, translated by Kerry Shawn Keys

AGGRESSOR’S MONOLOGUE by Artūras Valionis, translated by Jura Avizienis

THAT’S ALL by Jurgita Jasponytė, translated by Jura Avizienis

UNTITLED by Linas Umbrasas, translated by Audra Skukauskaitė

FIRST SPRING OF THE WAR by Vytautas Kaziela, translated by Jura Avizienis

A LETTER TO A CHILD by Lina Buidavičiutė, translated by Ada Valaitis

UNTITLED by Aneta Kamińska, translated by Anna Blasiak

TWO LYRICS OF LOVE AND MEMORY by Lina Kostenko, translated by Stephen Komarnyckyj

CROW STUDY by Yuri Andrukhovych, translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin

UNTITLED POEM by Serhiy Zhadan, translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin

UNTITLED POEM by Ludmila Khersonsky, translated by Maya Chhabra

UNTITLED POEM by Iryna Vikyrchak

From THE ANDROMEDA NEBULA by Anna Gréki, translated by Souheila Haïmiche and Cristina Viti

TEAPOT by Nurduran Duman, translated by Andrew Wessels

IT’S COMING AGAIN by Michael Strunge, translated by Paul Russell Garrett

REPORT FROM ANOTHER CITY by Marcin Niewirowicz, translated by the Author

INTERIOR by Ana Blandiana, translated by Paul Scott Derrick and Viorica Patea

THIS IS LOVE by Joanna Fligiel, translated by Anna Blasiak

REVELATION IN H&M by Menno Wigman, translated by David Colmer

*** (I WANT TO FOLD THIS DAY) by Inga Pizāne, translated by Jayde Will

THE SIEGE by Marcin Świetlicki, translated by Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese

FISH by Jana Putrle Srdić, translated by Barbara Jurša

THE WELL by Maarja Pärtna, translated by Jayde Will

THE SHADOW by Pentti Saarikoski, translated by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah

A FAREWELL TO MY DEAD CLASS by Irit Amiel, translated by Anna Blasiak and Marta Dziurosz

THE GIRLS IN BERGEN-BELSEN by Nora Gomringer, translated by Annie Rutherford

DECEMBER, by Jaume Subirana, translated by Christopher Whyte

ROSE RED, by Ulrike Almut Sandig, translated by Karen Leeder

*** (I D[R]IPPED MY PEN…) by Mario Martín Gijón, translated by Terence Dooley

WHAT COMES by Magda Cârneci, translated by Adam J. Sorkin and Mădălina Bănucu

TRANSLATION by Justyna Bargielska, translated by Maria Jastrzębska

*** (MY EYES, DENSE NIGHT…) by Gëzim Hajdari, translated by Ian Seed