Amelia Rosselli: O Little Swallow

O little swallow full of grace you invent your words and whistle
                                    free outside any plantation
with you I would dance far beyond the precise nests I would know
the indulgent summit. If the self-propelling
troubles keep coming, if rebellion must wither, if your feather falls
                                    to the ground
may I at least dream! indifference and may the
blond tyrannies (and may the madhouse)
look after your hot blast (your blond tyrannies). 


Tr. Giuseppe Leporace. Rosselli (1930-1996) was a force of nature who should be better known outside Italy.  She was trilingual (including English), a musicologist, resistant to being categorised inside the groups and movements that infest Italian poetry, and subject to depression which may have been undiagnosed and was eventually suicidal. It's not reductionist to say that this poem seems to be about some aspects of the depression.