Yesterday, my Kosovar workmate asked me could I lend him fifty euros – looking down at his feet working up the courage to say those words mulled over who knows how long – he knows I’ve two kids & the mortgage & all the rest – & for sure also knew my answer already, ’cause he didn’t get mad, yes, yes, he said, I understand shaking his head as we made our way to the shop floor, clutching our gloves. But me, I could not recognize the guy who found himself having to say sorry just as the siren started off, with not even any time left for shame.
By Fabio Franzin
Translated by Cristina Viti
From Corpo dea realtà – Corpo della realtà
Published by Puntoacapo (2019)
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Fabio Franzin’s poetry describes the experiences of factory work and unemployment, and the creation of spaces of beauty, solidarity and tenderness in the margins of society. His award-winning poetry collections are written in his own ‘earthy, full-bodied’ Trevigiano dialect.
Cristina Viti is a translator and poet working with Italian, English and French. Her most recent publication was a co-translation of poems by Anna Gréki (The Streets of Algiers and Other Poems, Smokestack Books, 2020). Her translation of Elsa Morante’s The World Saved by Kids and Other Epics (Seagull Books, 2016) was shortlisted for the John Florio Prize.