Dialect Poetry of Southern Italy (Italian Poetry in Translation Book 2)

Some Bitterness

Naples has a sweet taste
that enters your nostrils and violates
the tenderness of winter evenings
as they fall upon the seashore
in coils of softness
and settle on the Maschio Angioino
like omens
of a last farewell.
At those times I hide
in the stranger that lives in me
and spies my steps
my thoughts my forlorn weeping
for all I’ll have to leave behind.
(Translated by Luigi Bonaffini)