I've always been a bit reluctant to post poetry to this group,
but...  Alex insisted so, and translated the first two verses from
a poem of mine so well, that I couldn't resist placing them,
unidentified, as my "New Year's" signature.  And - sweetest Roo
went and wrote me asking about those verses, since she liked them
so much!!!  [A.k.a., how to make me swoon with pleasure in one
easy lesson :-)]  So I gained the courage to ask Alex to translate
the rest, and, I'm amazed at the result: faithful, yet better than
my original Italian... so, here it is, though I AM still trembling 
a bit at the thought of posting it...


    You bite my slender wrists, my frail and fiery flesh,
    You drink the cutting taste of lips and breached sunsets;
    You burn my moon-white body of tears and of strewn silk,
    Racking the life confined in kisses and flat hopes.

    O drown my liquid breasts in skies of moss and blood,
    Silence of hands and faces in tender shiny embraces;
    You rend my woman's hips into clear pleasant flowers,
    In dreams of crystal lakes you weave again the past.

    Lovers' emeralds lost in thin flutes of reed,
    Sweetest tunics of white in seas of blood-red silk,
    Soothing and stolen loves, star-struck corals gone mad,
    Soft rebel pearls, in silver, pain-torn words.


And here's the original, for those few of you who can read it:

    Tu mordi i miei polsi sottili, la mia fragile carne rovente,
    tu bevi tagliente il sapore di labbra e tramonti sbrecciati;
    tu bruci il mio corpo lunare di lacrime e seta diffusa,
    divori la vita rinchiusa in baci e speranze banali.

    Annega il mio liquido seno in cieli di muschio e di sangue,
    silenzio di mani e di volti in teneri amplessi lucenti;
    tu sbrani i miei fianchi di donna in limpidi fiori ridenti,
    sognando cristalli di lago ritessi quell'era distante.

    Smeraldi di amanti perduti in esili flauti di canna,
    dolcissime tuniche bianche in mari di seta vermiglia,
    amori sopiti e rubati, coralli impazziti di stelle,
    soffici perle ribelli, in argento, e parole straziate.



Blessed be, dearest friends of the Net,
    Laylah