Dana Gioia

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You are here: Home / Poems / Others / Especially in Weeping

Especially in Weeping

Especially in weeping
the soul reveals
its presence
and through secret pressure
changes sorrow into water.
The first budding of the spirit
is in the tear,
a slow and transparent word.
Then following this elemental alchemy
thought turns itself into substance
as real as a stone or an arm.
And there is nothing uneasy in the liquid
except the mineral
anguish of matter.


Translated from the Italian of Valerio Magrelli

Filed Under: Others, Poems