Ciò che rimane quando il rosso si ritira
Italiano
The poppies along the embankment — I counted seven this morning, then lost count, then found I was no longer counting but only looking, which is the better act. Red is the first color the dying eye surrenders, the physicians say. I do not know if I believe the physicians. But I notice that when the light falls low across the water, as it does now, the red in things retreats first — the flower becomes a dark suggestion, the wound in the painting becomes shadow, the lips of the Madonna I will not finish become simply a shape that once held warmth. Perhaps this is not loss. Perhaps red was always the temporary ambassador of something the eye could not otherwise receive, and when it withdraws it has only completed its embassy. The candle. The water outside, going somewhere I cannot follow tonight.
English
What remains when the red withdraws
The poppies along the embankment — I counted seven this morning, then lost count, then found I was no longer counting but only looking, which is the better act. Red is the first color the dying eye surrenders, the physicians say. I do not know if I believe the physicians. But I notice that when the light falls low across the water, as it does now, the red in things retreats first — the flower becomes a dark suggestion, the wound in the painting becomes shadow, the lips of the Madonna I will not finish become simply a shape that once held warmth. Perhaps this is not loss. Perhaps red was always the temporary ambassador of something the eye could not otherwise receive, and when it withdraws it has only completed its embassy. The candle. The water outside, going somewhere I cannot follow tonight.
