Nei Tempi Bui/In Dark Times

Earlier this summer I had the privilege of seeing a poem written collaboratively by myself and Virginia Mazzoni appear in the international, bilingual journal Open Doors/Porte Aperte. As a neophyte student of Italian, I try my hand at writing poetry in Italian, simply because that's one of the ways I process language, so it gives me a chance to learn and develop while comfortably on my home turf, so to speak. My dear friend and Italian teacher Gin Mazzoni is also a poet, and a passionate voice for human rights, women's rights, and social activism.

Nei Tempi Bui/In Dark Times is an example of the way we work together, creating parallel poems rather than one being the translation, strictly speaking, of the other. Both the English and Italian versions are sonnets, A strict translation of either the English or Italian version would have either dismantled the rhyme scheme in the translation or, if forcing the translated rhyme scheme, broken the gentle flow of the intended meaning. Instead, we both worked on both poems, searching to convey the same emotional tone and content, but making sure each also worked in terms of rhyme, meter, structure, and language flow. The meaning, in either language, is clear: The glimmers you are seeing in the night are false hope -- the dark times are not ending. You must get up and fight.

Open Doors is an absolutely beautiful journal, and a wonderful read for anyone fluent in Italian and English -- and particularly for English speakers learning Italian, and Italian speakers learning English. I highly recommend a subscription to support this worthwhile literary endeavor! The journal is in the process of loading back issues on to their website as digital flipbooks for free reading, so I've posted Issue 7, June 2025, below for your reading pleasure. Grazie e buona lettura!

Open Doors_7.pdf

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