PIER 21 WRITING PROMPT RESPONSE

CORAGGIO MAMMA

A poem

Brescia insurrection, April 1945. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

In your time on our land, freedom was a choice to be paid for with blood.

In that autumn you went forth with old and new companions, mountains armed to crumble upon foreign footsteps. In the frozen winter each tremor renewed the resolve: every other path was a wall against the heart.

But at the rising of summer you reached the Mount of Olives.

The world bloomed far from the damp cell, from the echo of an unbroken silence and a jailer who saves in order to kill. For seven days, hung in July’s airless streets a spectacle for inhumanity, your body was a warning: the flag soaked in red will never be white.

On a loaf of bread, the farewell words remain carved: CORAGGIO MAMMA.

My body aches with pride when I think that if I am alive it is because of men and women like you: and if I turn the other way and if I do not raise my voice, once more I am giving you death.

Original poem in Italian:

Al tuo tempo sulla nostra terra, la libertà era una scelta da pagare con il sangue.

In quell’ autunno vi andasti incontro con vecchi e nuovi compagni, montagne armate da franare sulle orme straniere. Nell’inverno gelido ogni tremito rinnovava la fermezza: ogni altra via era un muro contro il cuore.

Ma al sorgere dell’estate arrivasti al Monte degli Ulivi.

Il mondo rifiorì lontano dalla cella umida, dall’ eco di un silenzio intatto e un aguzzino che salva per uccidere. Per sette giorni appeso nel luglio di città spettacolo dell’inumanità, il tuo corpo fu monito: la bandiera zuppa di rosso mai sarà bianca.

Su una pagnotta restano incise le parole d’addio: CORAGGIO MAMMA.

Mi duole il corpo di un orgoglio angosciante quando penso che se vivo è per uomini e donne come te: e se mi giro dall’altra parte e se non alzo la voce ancora una volta vi sto dando la morte.

Author’s note:

This poem is inspired by the story of Italian partisan Ignazio Vian, who fought in the Italian Resistance from the beginning of the Nazi-fascist occupation of Italy in autumn 1943 until the moment he was captured and then executed in the summer 1944. You can read more about his story in this Wikipedia article.

I first learned about Ignazio Vian’s story when reading excerpts from a collection entitled “Letters from Resistance Fighters Condemned to Death”. Ignazio’s last message was carved on a loaf of bread, and consists of the names of his family members followed by “CORAGGIO MAMMA” (“STAY STRONG MUM”). He was 27 when he died. The loaf of bread is still preserved at the “Museo Storico della Liberazione” in Rome. A copy is also displayed at the museum now created at the “Nuove” prison in Turin, where Vian and many other dissidents were imprisoned, tortured and killed during the Nazi-fascist regime.

This piece is written in response to the Pier 21 prompt “Tales in Time”:

[embed]Tales in Time Pier 21: May-June (Special Edition)medium.com

Thank you to editors Amalia Cotovan and Willow Schroeder!