S A L V A T O R E C A M I L L E R I
__________________________________________FOUR HATS
Translated by Carla Billitteri and Benjamin Friedlander
from Camilleri's Italian translation of his own Sicilian
Four hats in front of a bar.
San Siro, ninetieth minute,
the teams still zero-zero,
Mazzola moving, kicks, the goalie
stops it, Corso comes
and shoots to Facchetti, header,
chaos…ball in net…he scores!Four hats in front of a bar,
four chairs pulled close, four pains
far apart, four mouths closed tight, air
still as a tombstone.The government will ruin us
and pick us clean, the landlords
want our flesh. Listen, workers,
the Unions are on our side.Four hats in front of a bar,
four chairs pulled close, four pains
far apart, four mouths closed tight, air
still as a tombstone,
four glasses on the table.Earthquake, four hundred dead,
a mountain of stone on stone.
Nothing is left of Gibellina.
In Santa Margherita the earth
opened up and swallowed men.Four hats in front of a bar,
four chairs pulled close, four pains
far apart, four mouths closed tight, air
still as a tombstone,
four glasses on the table,
four matches, four cigarettes.Two spiked heels click on stone,
the foreign woman passes, her perfume
fills the nose, reaches the bar,
the air moves, one breathes, it carries
the whistle of the train that doesn't leave.Four hats in front of a bar,
four hats turn around as one,
four trees burned at the root
regain life with the first gulp.
Seven-hundred years the world
has gone ahead since Benevento, seven-
hundred years the sun has burned the men,
seven-hundred years the blood has gone
to the head, but just enough to keep it alive.
_______________________
The Battle of Benevento was fought in 1266, inaugurating Angevin rule, which was quickly superseded by that of the Spanish. Liberation came in 1860 with Garibali's landing. Tutta colpa degli Spagnoli (“it's all the fault of the Spanish”) is still a common expression in Sicily .
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