[Something], By Luciano Erba

It’s a street in Milan

and I make

haste to the east.

Already you can see lights

but the sky is still clear

clear the far clouds.

Pretty soon I’ll be turning back

to turn back to my books

taken up

in their secret

and at night

I’ll be behind shutters

like a disturbed statue.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY CELIA & LOUIS ZUKOFSKY

From “The Metaphysical Streetcar Conductor” by Luciano Erba, edited by Alfredo de Palchi and Michael Palma (Gradiva Publications: 152 pp., $13)