Il rosso che si spegne
Italiano
The red at the horizon — I have watched it perhaps ten thousand evenings and still I cannot say with certainty whether the eye receives it or invents it, whether the color lives in the air or only in the animal behind the eye that hungers for such things. L'occhio inganna se stesso con tanta grazia. The canal holds it a moment longer than the sky does, which is strange, which I have noted before and note again because noting it twice does not make it less true — the water is slower to surrender the light, as though it has learned something stone and flesh have not, as though patience is not a virtue but a property, a thing the water possesses the way iron possesses weight. My hand tonight is worse than yesterday. The red dims. I do not reach for a name for what I feel watching it go.
English
The red at the horizon — I have watched it perhaps ten thousand evenings and still I cannot say with certainty whether the eye receives it or invents it, whether the color lives in the air or only in the animal behind the eye that hungers for such things. The eye deceives itself with such grace. The canal holds it a moment longer than the sky does, which is strange, which I have noted before and note again because noting it twice does not make it less true — the water is slower to surrender the light, as though it has learned something stone and flesh have not, as though patience is not a virtue but a property, a thing the water possesses the way iron possesses weight. My hand tonight is worse than yesterday. The red dims. I do not reach for a name for what I feel watching it go.
