Written piece
Saffi/Layers
Marian Farrugia
United Kingdom
About this piece
Original
Saffi ħarġet minn għina ma ħabiba waqt żjara f Malta,fil-gżira fejn twelidt u minn fejn fejn tlaqt.. jew forsi le..
English translation
Saffi is something that emerged from a swim I had with a friend when visiting Malta the island where I was born and grew up but which I left. .. or maybe not..
Mixja ma ‘żmien
ħajta minsuġa
fuq saffi ta ‘lwien
mehmuza ġol-fossili tar-rdum
imkebba fl-irdieden tal-menħir
rakkmu ta' passat imqanqal
meħjut fuq gżira
f'nofs baħar jitbandal
rukkell ta' memorji tat-tfal
li feġġew ġo għar
issa mafkar imwaqqa
ta ‘tifkiriet imraqqa
borġ blat imnaqqar
xbigħa ta ‘xiħa
li bħali
tipponta
tbaħħar
u ma tistax
għax sieqa imgerba
f'katina tal-alka
torbota bħall-ankra
ġoll-Mediterran.
English translation
A walk through time
a thread
woven in the coloured layers
fossilised on a cliff
laced around the spirals
etched on the megalith
an embroidery
of a troubled island past
stitched on a swaying sea
a reel
of childhood memories
born in a cave
now a ruined temple
of patched remembrances
a heap of crumpled rocks
the shape of an old woman
that she had also become
trying
but failing
to sail away
because
her legs are tethered
by a seaweed chain
anchoring her
deep into the Mediterranea