Mark Strand reads "The Couple" and "Is it you among the olive trees?"

 The Couple, reading of Mark Strand at thr Erotikon Symposium, Chicago 2001


The scene is a midtown station.
     The time is 3 a.m.
Jane is alone on the platform,
    Humming a requiem...











 Al minuto 5,31 del video, Mark Strand legge It is you standing among the olive trees...


Is it you standing among the olive trees
Beyond the courtyard? You in the sunlight
Waving me closer with one hand while the other


Shields your eyes from the brightness that turns
all that is not you dead white? Is it you
around whom the leaves scatter like foam?


 You in the murmuring night that is scented
with mint and lit by the distant wilderness
of stars? Is it you? It is really you


rising from the script of waves, the lenght
of your body casting a sudden shadow over my hand
so that I feel how cold it is as it moves


over the page? You leaning down and putting
Your mouth against mine so I should know
that a kiss is only the beginning


Of what until now we could only imagine?
Is it you or the long compassionate wind
That whispers in my ear: alas, alas?


Sei tu tra gli ulivi
al di là del cortile? tu nel sole che mi fai cenno
di avvicinarmi con una mano mentre l' altra

ti scherma gli occhi dalla luminosità che trasforma
tutto ciò che non è in te in bianco assoluto?..


...Tu nella notte sussurante che profuma di menta
ed è illuminata dal lontano territorio delle stelle?
Sei tu? Sei davvero tu?....