slut but but versione italo inglese

So now for something completely different. I read this tonight at the weekly readings at Isola Tiburina. Con grazie mille a mia amica Suzanne Santoro per la traduzione.

Sono femminista radicale da quadrant-anni. Ma, non mi va giù per niente il/la. “Slut Walk”. Però, c’è stato/stata un/una “Slut Walk” in aprile scorso qui a roma.

slut but but

I’m a slut

but  but

ma       non sono  non sono

I’m a slot

I’m a slut

ma ma

ma che significa?

am I a slut?

but but

he said you’re a slut

he said look at your butt

you’re a slut

dicevo

but but

she said she’s a slut

no buts about it

just a slut

all smut

tutti dicevono she’s a slut

sicuramente

but but I said

I said but

I’m no slut

non sono una fessura per il tuo pezzo

I’m not here for you

so fuck off and stop doin me in

he said but but

no slut here

no fear

he said but but

she said but but

they said but but

I’m not the butt of your names

le tue parole non sono le mie parole

no fuckin way

chiudi il becco

I’m no slut

I’m no slut walker

sono una cammina non sono una zoccola

so butt out

vattene della mia mente

I’ll think what I want

I’ll do what I want

I’ll walk at 3 am if I want

indosserò stivaloni i tirero calci

avrò i cappelli come mi pare

corti o lunghi

ma non faro sesso per strada

because I’m not here for you

tu sei uno stalker

cos I’m no slut

you say but but

you look like a slut

you must be a slut

if you’re out a 3 am

if you don’t look girlie

you must be a fuckin femminista

they’re all sluts

that’s what they are

and I say

you got it boy

you got it girl

sono una femminista

now fuck off

I’m no slut

d’you hear

try again

I’m no slut

they all said but but

Bilingual version © Susan Hawthorne, 2013; Translation Suzanne Santoro, 2013.

the calculus of umbrals

The Basilica di San Clemente in Rome has a wonderful mosaic in the apse. There are 13 sheep and above them an incredible spiral of branches. It is clear to me that this is the world tree, that these images are pre-christian and that the church has appropriated these symbols as they have many others. I was enjoying this artwork and then I read a meditation that Cardinal Ratzinger - later Pope Benedict (now former Pope Benedict) - wrote about this work of art. The result is this poem.

The bold italics words in the poem are taken from Benedict XVI. (ND) The Apse Mosaic, Basilica di San Clemente. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

the calculus of umbrals

in the calculus of umbrals

the shadowy variable

allows pretence to become proof

the apse mosaic in the basilica of San Clemente

has thirteen sheep

above this coven of sheep

the tree of life multiplies

calculates infinity

becomes the world tree

its branches spiralling endlessly

the sheep are breeding

producing new flocks

same same each year

and the shepherds endlessly at work

the sheep bleat

in the calculus of umbrals

the shadowy variable

allows pretence to become proof

but says the man of God

this eternal circling is futile

it is endless repetition

what we need is progress

the sheep bleat

in the calculus of umbrals

the shadowy variable

allows pretence to become proof

that vain circular motion

is broken open by the cross

the new dynamic of a world

no longer circling but ascending

the sheep bleat

in the calculus of umbrals

the shadowy variable

allows pretence to become proof

the fishhook of God

has put human history

on the up and up

we men are your branches

death is love

we have taken over

we are ascending

to the fathers’ true progress

the sheep bleat

in the calculus of umbrals

the shadowy variable

allows pretence to become proof

 

earth shatters

branches break

the cycle is broken

broken open

the forest is shattered

broken open

clear felled

the cross hewn

the man crucified

broken open

the cross has changed the dynamic

now human history is on the up and up

the sheep bleat

in the calculus of umbrals

the shadowy variable

allows pretence to become proof

In the last image on the right, the wolf is depicted supporting the cross. I found this in a book this morning and it is held in the Vatican Museum. It tells a kind of truth, that christianity is simultaneously built on pagan traditions and denies them. Sounds familiar.

The wild, as I wrote in Wild Politics, is the source of capitalism's destructive profit mongering. Without the wild, without biodiversity, there would be nothing to capitalise on. And yet that biodiversity, the wild wolf, the world tree is reviled. And Cardinal Ratzinger above says that the endless repetition is futile. This poem is therefore a critique of that world view.

descent

The Etruscan museum is full of treasures like this Medusa.  Michael Grant in his book Roman Myths notes that the Etruscans failed to understand heroes or sympathise with the concept and therefore in their art tended to represent them as deities - gods and goddesses - sometimes winged (1971: p. 193).

Medusa is not winged but she bears the mark of her ancient past in her snake hair. She's a healer and extraordinarily powerful.

I've also been reading about the beginnings of Rome and a number of sibyls are implicated in its origin, specifically the Cumaean Sibyl whom Aeneas visited after leaving Carthage - Dido dead by suicide - and before going on to the place that will become Rome.

descent

the call

that hollow sound of Cumaea

I was here before

thousands of years ago

your hundred mouths

shouting

words frothed at the edge

of my mouth

the journey looming

flight into the unknown

descent into

the dark thighs of your cave

my hair snake-wreathed

Etruscan Medusa

speaking with a hundred voices

the sibilant hiss of prophecy

seizure grasped

she flails at vanishing memory

bruised she rises from darkness

almost misses the plane