DELICATE SOULS

There are tired and delicate souls

that break just like pieces of glass,

tremble like autumn leaves, even

from a single, spontaneous word.

The wind takes and throws them

on the ground, under the tempest;

they get wet and trampled down

in an anonymous and lonely road.

There, you will find even my soul.

WHO WILL PROTECT YOU?

Who will protect you from anxieties

when I am no longer in this universe,

who’ll caress your beautiful forehead

saying, “Let’s sleep, for it is late”?

Who will whisper words of comfort,

the ones that flow just like a stream,

who will give you a caress, a smile,

waking up your anima and fantasy?

Who will accompany you in a dream,

speak to you and touch you sweetly,

who will kiss you, who will love you

with passion when I won’t be here?

THE FIRES

It is nothing else, only a bit of nostalgia

in this foggy, cold and anonymous city,

where all the days are the same, where

a pure and a limpid soul is broken.

It is nothing else, just a memory that this

winter brought me from afar—the image

of an old stove and our frozen hands on it.

My dear mother blew on a fire that didn’t

light at all. Sparks were flying in the room

like a thousand shining stars.

Her breath lit the embers and, in the soul,

the fire of love and affection. Now that

she is not here anymore, all the fires are

extinguished. Maybe forever.

IRMA KURTI is an Albanian poet, writer, lyricist, journalist, and translator. She is a naturalized Italian and lives in Bergamo, Italy. In 2020, she became the honorary president of WikiPoesia, the encyclopedia of poetry. Irma Kurti is a member of the jury for several literary competitions in Italy and also a translator for the Ithaca Foundation in Spain. Irma Kurti has published more than 100 works, including books of poetry, fiction and translations. Her books have been translated and published in 21 countries.