Venice masks

Wednesday 4 September 2024

Sermon - Emanuel Carnevali

Chao-Mong-Mu freely laid his hands over the sky:
You do not know how to lay your hands over the breasts of your beloved.
Chao-Mong-Mu made the tree dance at his will:
You do not know how to hug a rough tree and say “darling” to it.
Chao-Mong-Mu magnificently ran a shaft of sunlight to smash against the treetops:
You walk carefully, carefully, and fend off the sunlight with your grey clothes, although you’re very poor.
Chao-Mong-Mu painted a sky that was a pink-fleshed vase; then he became a very small thing and hid in the vase:
You build yourselves immense houses to live in, and you are afraid even there.

Emanuel Carnevali (1897 - 1942) Italy
Source: Poetry: A Magazine of VerseMonroe, Harriet, ed, 1917

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