Togħma żgħira tal-kitbiet tal-awturi mistiedna għall-Festival Mediterranju tal-Letteratura ta’ Malta 2019.
A little taste from the works of the authors taking part in the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival 2019.
Yolanda Pantin
![Yolanda Pantin. Photo by Pascual Borzelli.](https://i0.wp.com/www.inizjamed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Yolanda-Pantin-by-Pascual-Borzelli-Crop.jpg?resize=819%2C1024&ssl=1)
I only understand
what I project onto you
what the foreign language
unchains
out of its strange music
Ritratt / Photo: Pascual Borzelli
Yolanda Castaño
![Yolanda Castaño. Photo by Dmitri Kotjuh.](https://i0.wp.com/www.inizjamed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/yolanda-castaño-crop.jpg?resize=782%2C1024&ssl=1)
My beauty that intimidates,
that annoys without speaking,
that weakens.
My beauty that prognosticates,
that eclipses me,
that betrays me.
Ritratt / Photo: Dmitri Kotjuh.
Sampurna Chattarji
![Sampurna Chattarji. Photo by Richard Hooton.](https://i0.wp.com/www.inizjamed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Sampurna-Chattarji_photo-by-Richard-Hooton_sm.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1)
I will count and recount the ways
in which a poem turns slowly
into the story I wasn’t writing,
was always writing,
into the sharp clear sound of morning,
ancestral and strong.
Ritratt / Photo: Richard Hooton.
Rena Balzan
![Rena Balzan. Photo by Mario Mintoff.](https://i0.wp.com/www.inizjamed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Rena-Balzan_photo-by-Mario-Mintoff.jpg?resize=682%2C1024&ssl=1)
tgħid postna ma kienx hemm
lil hinn mil-limiti
ta’ kull
żmien
u forsi ħadd mill-antenati
ma ried jixhed …
li qatt rana flimkien
lili u lilek?
Ritratt / Photo: Mario Mintoff
Rasha Abbas
![Rasha Abbas](https://i0.wp.com/www.inizjamed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Abbas_sq3.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024&ssl=1)
Your games are upsetting; they always seem like they’re going to end in tears. Like this one you’re playing right now, for example — I’ve just woken up to find myself blindfolded, with my hands tied to the chair I’m sitting on.
Loranne Vella
![Loranne Vella. Photo by Kenneth Scicluna.](https://i0.wp.com/www.inizjamed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/LoranneVella_photo-by-Ken-Scicluna-sm.jpg?resize=1000%2C1024&ssl=1)
Xi rrid nagħmel biex nitlaq?
Hawn min iqum u jitlaq. Iqum filgħodu, jilbes, jiftaħ il-bieb u joħroġ. U ma jerġax jiġi lura. Hekk. Bla pjan. Bla tħejjija. Jew forsi ħajtu kollha sa dak il-punt kienet fil-fatt tħejjija biżżejjed biex jum fost l-oħrajn taqbiżlu u jaqbad u jitlaq. Hekk. Ħabta u sabta.
Ritratt / Photo: Kenneth Scicluna
Habib Tengour
![Habib Tengour](https://i0.wp.com/www.inizjamed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Habib-Tengour_photo-by-Pierre-Joris_sm.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1)
With the summer all our friends have left.
Such memories …
At the instant of farewell your life turns transparent and so
it can look
at itself without grief.
Elizabeth Grech
![Elizabeth Grech. Photo by Virginia Monteforte.](https://i0.wp.com/www.inizjamed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Liz-Grech_by-Virginia-Monteforte.jpg?resize=1024%2C678&ssl=1)
Ħudni miegħek
ngħaddu l-linji mkemmxa,
insewwu t-tiċrit
tal-Mediterran.
Jekk hemm post għalija,
ħallini ninħall
bejn il-fili rotob
ta’ laħmek.
Ritratt / Photo: Virginia Monteforte
Davide Rondoni
![Davide Rondoni](https://i0.wp.com/www.inizjamed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/davide-rondoni.jpeg?resize=496%2C640&ssl=1)
In her eyes the smile of having
met her man before the rabbit hutch
a gentle, acrid morning
when his greeting was but
a couple coarse and heavenly lines.
Astrid Alben
![Astrid Alben photo by Philip Hancock](https://i0.wp.com/www.inizjamed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Astrid-Alben_photo-by-Philip-Hancock_crop_sm.jpg?resize=1006%2C1024&ssl=1)
I’m a sudden coolness in the air I’m coming down
rain — the kind the eye can see like Poet playing air guitar
love home envy kitchen table a complex of occasions
like my mother playing solitaire. She listens to the radio.
Ritratt / Photo: Philip Hancock
Antoine Cassar
![Antoine Cassar. Photo by Sunshine Coast Writers Festival](https://i0.wp.com/www.inizjamed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Antoine-Cassar_photo-by-Sunshine-Coast-Writers-Festival-Crop.jpg?resize=700%2C671&ssl=1)
Erbgħin għodwa mil-lum sa tmiem is-sena,
ħa nindem minn kull għelt, niskonġra l-biża’,
nerġa’ nifrex il-mappa, inġibha f’postha,
f’tarf il-ħabel nerġa’ niddritta l-boxxla
’mbagħad jew inkompli għal triqti, jew ninfena.
Ritratt / Photo: Sunshine Coast Writers Festival
Eric Ngalle Charles
![Eric Ngalle Charles Paul Musso at Hay Festival crop](https://i0.wp.com/www.inizjamed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Eric-Ngalle-Charles-Paul-Musso-at-Hay-Festival-crop.jpg?resize=651%2C720&ssl=1)
The last ritual.
That day, I prayed in a tongue
I did not understand,
In a language, I did not speak.
I laugh.
Rain bouncing on my back,
My wrinkles hiding the passage of time,
Living as a stranger amongst my own.
Ritratt / Photo: Paul Musso at Hay Festival