Map of the new world
Archipelagoes
At the end of this sentence, rain will begin.
At the rain’s edge, a sail.
Slowly the sail will lose sight of islands;
into a mist will go the belief in harbours
of an entire race.
The ten-years war is finished.
Helen’s hair, a gray cloud.
Troy, a white ashpit
by the drizzling sea.
The drizzle tightens like the strings of a harp.
A man with clouded eyes picks up the rain
and plucks the first line of the Odyssey.
Mappa del nuovo mondo
Arcipelaghi
Alla fine di questa frase, comincerà la pioggia.
All'orlo della pioggia una vela.
Lenta la vela perderà di vista le isole;
in una foschia se ne andrà la fede nei porti
di un'intera razza.
La guerra dei dieci anni è finita.
La chioma di Elena, una nuvola grigia.
Troia, an accumulation of white ash
near the dripping of the sea. The trickle
tend like the strings of a harp.
A man with clouded eyes picks up the rain
and plucks the first line of the Odyssey.
Derek Walcott
