Alex Rosselli

To Loll at Midday, Pale and Pensive (Meriggiare pallido e assorto - Eugenio Montale 1916) - Translation Dia Tsung To loll around at midday, pale and pensive by a scorching garden wall and listen in the thorn brake to the blackbird’s noisy hustle and the snake’s rustle. To gaze upon the cracked ground, watching the red ants entwining and lining up amongst the vetch, and twisting back and crowding the summits of their minute stacks. To look through the leaves at the sea’s scaly surface distantly pulsing while the cicada’s shrill quavering cry spills and rebounds off the stripped and naked hills. Emerging then into the dazzling flash to feel with dismal wonderment there how all of life and its enduring care is found within this trudging ambit of a wall rimmed with the shards of broken bottle glass.