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Close to the Teeth
An iconoclastic portrayal of Italian domestic spaces, especially the kitchen and the body, Close to the Teeth is an exploration of the intimate space that belongs to women, and of the ways in which that space alternately oppresses and gives power. The domestic interior and the female body often become one another in these poems in ways that are frightening, illuminating, and deeply familiar. In them the dangers and the powers of the domestic emerge alongside those of the body. This collection is also a deeply personal account, fragmentary, increasingly tense, yet flexible and fierce.
"1139786723"
Close to the Teeth
An iconoclastic portrayal of Italian domestic spaces, especially the kitchen and the body, Close to the Teeth is an exploration of the intimate space that belongs to women, and of the ways in which that space alternately oppresses and gives power. The domestic interior and the female body often become one another in these poems in ways that are frightening, illuminating, and deeply familiar. In them the dangers and the powers of the domestic emerge alongside those of the body. This collection is also a deeply personal account, fragmentary, increasingly tense, yet flexible and fierce.
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Close to the Teeth

Close to the Teeth

Overview

An iconoclastic portrayal of Italian domestic spaces, especially the kitchen and the body, Close to the Teeth is an exploration of the intimate space that belongs to women, and of the ways in which that space alternately oppresses and gives power. The domestic interior and the female body often become one another in these poems in ways that are frightening, illuminating, and deeply familiar. In them the dangers and the powers of the domestic emerge alongside those of the body. This collection is also a deeply personal account, fragmentary, increasingly tense, yet flexible and fierce.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780998740089
Publisher: Autumn Hill Books
Publication date: 09/01/2021
Pages: 258
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Elisa Biagini has published poetry collections such as L'Ospite (Einaudi 2004), Fiatto. parole per musica (D'If 2006), Nel Bosco (Einaudi 2007), The Guest in the Wood (Chelsea Editions 2013-14; Best Translated Book Award), Da una crepa (Einaudi 2017), Depuis une fissure (Cadastre8zero 2018; Prix Nunc), and Filamenti (Einaudi 2020). Her poems have been translated into fifteen languages, and she has translated contemporary American poets for Italian reviews, anthologies, and complete collections (Nuovi Poeti Americani, Einaudi 2006). She teaches writing at NYU Florence. www.elisabiagini.it

Sarah Stickney is a poet and translator. She is the Dean of Deep Springs College.

Diana Thow is an award winning literary translator from Italian. Her translations include Amelia Rosselli's Hospital Series (Otis Press/Seismicity Books 2017), Impromptu (Guernica Editions 2014), and Elisa Biagini's The Guest in the Woods (Chelsea Editions 2013). She holds an MFA in translation from the University of Iowa, and a PhD in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley, where she is a lecturer in Italian Studies.

Table of Contents

There's the other…/C'è quell' altro… 2

Blankets, towels, napkins…/Coperte, asciugamani, tovaglioli… 4

Under the chestnut trees you gather husks…/Sotto i castagni raccogli i ricci… 6

You present your bottom teeth…/Porgi i denti di sotto… 8

When you find those long cuts…/Quando scopri quei tagli lunghi… 10

I don't see you as a person…/Non ti vedo persona… 12

You don't forget faces…/Tu non dimentichi le facce… 14

You show me your wounds, like a soldier…/Mi mostri le ferite, da soldato… 16

You're the sleepless princess…/Sei tu la principessa che non dorme… 18

Now you want me to touch the fractures…/Adesso vuoi che tocchi le fratture… 20

There…/Là… 22

Code filament…/Il filamento del codice… 24

I eat you in my pasta…/Ti mangio nella pasta… 26

It's slightly masochistic…/Leggero masochismo… 28

You've mopped so much…/Hai dato tanto cencio… 30

If your skin is now a paper bag…/Se adesso la pelle è la busta del pane 32

The bones will come back in a box…/Le ossa torneranno in una scatola… 34

Speaking of relatives, the sad eyes…/Parlando di parenti gli occhi tristi… 36

The huge shadows eat up the buildings from behind…/Da dietro le ombre immense si mangiano i palazzo… 38

Cheeks strained…/Le guance tirate… 40

When we're in the dark…/Quando saremo nel buio… 42

My cousin is the screen…/La cugina è lo schermo… 44

Unbalanced by the puddle in your head…/Squilibrato dalla pozza nella testa… 46

Suddenly we're in the same alveolus…/D'un tratto siamo nello stesso alveolo… 48

And my dry head…/E la mia testa asciutta… 50

The nerves restitched…?I nervi ricuciti… 52

I put bells on my ankles…/Ho messo i campanelli alle caviglie… 54

And when the hour comes…/E quando sarà giunta 1'ora… 56

Call them ovens…/Chiamarli forni… 58

The plates are never left out after dinner…/I piatti mai lasciati della cena… 60

If I lost you…/Se ogni volta che… 62

Bones are not so solid after all…/Le ossa non sano poi così solide… 64

Teeth brushed…/Lavati i denti… 66

You wrote me with your food…/Mi hai scritta col tuo cibo… 68

The body doesn't exist in this house…/Il corpo non esiste in questa casa… 70

Wax slathered…/Cera spalmata… 72

I translate your life…/Ti traduco la vita… 74

Meat diet…/Dieta di carne nel… 76

Leave a seed in your hand…/Lasciati un seme in mano… 78

You'll come back…/Ritornerai… 80

Out on parole, for… 82

What photo will we choose…/Quale foto sceglieremo?… 84

And the body is…/Ed il corpo è… 86

Montecatini/Montecatini 88

(I come down here to read…/(scendo quaggiù, per leggere… 92

In this light, yellow…/In questa luce gialla… 94

Sucked down by water, the black…/Succhiata d'acqua, il nero… 96

I'm mirrored again…/Mi specchio ancora… 98

Wedged between…/incastrata tra… 100

We go back…/Torniamo… 102

Again the lists…/Di nuovo elenchi… 104

Remote control 106

Reduced…/Ridotti… ios/109

Sleeping Beauty / Bella Addormentata 110

And so each time…/Così ogni volta… 112

Feminist icon/feminist icon 114

Short-circuit / cortocircuito 116

This chair of mine…/Questa mia sedia… 118

Your eyes ever lower…/Sempre più bassi… 120

You knit me…/mi hai fatta… 122

Nkondi/nkondi 124

The weight is your…/È il peso di te… 126

We're bound…/A not ci lega… 128

Senseless…/Senza senso… 130

Between us the voice…/Tra noi la voce non… 132

Death…/la morte… 134

Sweat…/Odore di… 136

Your sighs…/Tanti… 138

In my house…/Nella mia casa… 140

Speak to me again…/Parlami ancora… 142

Don't talk with strangers…/don't talk with strangers… 144

In this greenhouse…/In questa serra… 146

Do you still keep your diary…/Scrivi ancora diari… 148

Afterwards…/dopo… 150

At your request…/per tuo volere… 152

Housewife afterlife/housewife afterlife 154

(With lips…/(Con le labbra… 156

Leave me…/Lasciami… 158

Cleaning to…/pulire per… 160

The cracked egg…/l'uovo spezzato… 162

I'm the one who…/Sono io che… 164

Into the oven we go…/nel forno ci si va… 166

And when your flames…/e quando ti sarai… 168

To bury you…/seppellirti è… 170

Rice in all 4…/il riso nei 4… 172

You'll go with…/andrai coi… 174

At sunset I sweep…/spazzo al tramonto… 176

To wipe the time off you…/per ripulirti… 178

To make things spic…/per far pulito… 180

When in the end…/quando alla fine… 182

I'll leave the…/lascerò la… 184

And I who…/ed io che sono… 186

Your eyes…/Gli occhi ti… 188

This I…/questo io… 190

The rocking of…/il cullare del… 192

The eyes…/gli occhi di… 194

To reach…/per glungere… 196

Don't forget…/pensaci in… 198

You-Lilith…/tu-Lilith… 200

You hide…/Ti nascondi… 202

You hatch…/ti covi… 204

You won't let me have…/non mi permetti… 206

Even in my arms…/Ho orecchie anche… 208

Under 210

When alone…/Da sola… 212

The round…/Il tondo d'… 214

These melted eyes…/questi occhi sciolti… 216

Between us, like…/fra noi, come… 218

If I open…/se ti apro la… 220

We touch each other…/Noi ci tocchiamo… 222

Hands always…/Le mani sempre… 224

Plywood…/Nonno di… 226

Lost in the fire…/Perso nel fuoco… 228

Seeking your…/Cercando la tun… 230

G. Gretel/N. Gretel 232

Gran-ith/non-ith 234

How many you's are…/Quante tu sono… 236

That table…/quel tavolo… 238

I breathe you in…/io ti respiro… 240

You sniff me out…/mi annusi da… 242

These plates of yours…/questi tuoi piatti… 244

Closer…/mi sei più… 246

I promise that my hair…/Prometto che i capelli non… 248

The leaf…/La foglia di sua mano… 250

My Muezzin 252

Translators' Afterword 253

About the Author 257

About the Translators 258

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