From Aphorisms

BY ALDA MERINI

TRANSLATED BY DOUGLAS BASFORD

From Aphorisms

Psychoanalysis 

always looks for the egg 

in a basket 

that has been lost. 

I sample sin as if it were 

the beginning of well-being. 

I don't like Paradise 

as they probably don't have obsessions there. 

If God absolves me 

he always does so 

for insufficient 

evidence. 

Everyone is a friend of his own pathology. 

When I raise a toast to madness, 

I toast myself as well. 

There are nights that don't 

ever happen.

From Aphorisms and Spells

As I am Catholic 

I have never played. 

I've had 

thirty-six lovers 

plus tax. 

I am the most chaste woman 

in Italian literature. 

I am completely 

asexual 

not counting errors 

and omissions. 

Mount Sinai 

is sometimes confused 

with the Mons Veneris. 

BY ALDA MERINI

TRANSLATED BY DOUGLAS BASFORD