---Italian---

Il Corno d’Oro in lontananza
denso di polvere e di sostanza
stupefacente, stupefacente!

Fallobate
Tu, Vestale del cazzo!

Condotto all’interno nel sacro recesso,
purpurei drappi, aromi d’incenso,
sfarzo di gemme su lebeti d’oro,
guidato al sovrano da eunuchi frigi.
Epifania verticale,
siede su un trono immane,
alto, sospeso lui parla: non riesco a capire
(ed al mio orecchio bisbiglia il logoteta),
non riesco a capire!

Nella primavera del 1204
l’Impero Latino di Costantinopoli
sembrava un miraggio,
eppure le alzate all’ippodromo sono vuote!
Eppure portavano la croce!
Portavano la croce!!!

E quando Franz Reichelt, il sarto volante,
il 4 febbraio del 1912
si gettò dal primo livello della Tour Eiffel
per morire di infarto poco prima di atterrare,
credeva di volare!
Credeva di volare!!!

Una porta d’avorio, una porta di corno:
dall’una escono i sogni falsi, dall’altra i veri.
Sul limitare dell’alba ti ho sentita pisciare,
ma al mio risveglio non c’eri...

Sous ces propylées sont placés des phallus
érigés par Bacchus à une hauteur de trente brasses.
Sur l’un de ces phallus un homme monte deux fois par an
et demeure au haut du phallus pendant sept jours.
La raison de cette ascension, la voici:
le peuple est persuadé que cet homme, de cet endroit élevé,
converse avec les dieux, leur demande la prospérité de toute la Syrie
et que ceux-ci entendent de plus près sa priére.

Luc. De Syria Dea 29

Giovani menadi nude vestono nebridi screziate,
il tirso brandiscono alto e lo coronano d’edera,
corsa selvaggia le scuote, invasate gridano evoè,
mani grondanti di sangue, anch’io voglio vedere.
Fammi salire sulla cima, sulla cima dell’abete!


---English---

The Golden Horn far away
dense of powder and substance
dazing, dazing!

Phallobate
You, the cock's Vestal

Led inside, in the sacred recess,
purple draperies, incense scents,
splendor of gems on golden lebetes
guided to the sovereign by phrygian eunuchs.
Vertical epiphany,
sits on a huge throne,
high, suspended he speaks:
I can't understand
(and in my ear whispers the logothete),
I can't understand!

In the spring of 1204
the Latin Empire of Constantinople
seemed like a mirage,
yet the treads at the hippodrome are empty!
Yet they bore the cross!
They bore the cross!!!

And when Franz Reichelt, the flying tailor,
on the 4th of February 1912
threw himself off the first level of the Eiffel Tower
and died of a heart attack just before landing,
he believed he was flying!
He believed he was flying!!!

An ivory door, a horn door:
from one false dreams exit, from the other true ones.
On the brink of dawn I heard you pissing,
but when I woke up you weren't there...

In this entrance those phalli stand which Dionysus erected:
they stand thirty fathoms high.
Into one of these a man mounts twice every year,
and he abides on the summit of the phallus for the space of seven days.
The reason of this ascent is given as follows:
the people believe that the man
who is aloft holds
converse with the gods, and prays for good fortune for the whole of Syria, and that the gods from their
neighbourhood hear his prayers.

tr. by Herbert A. Strong and John Garstang

Young naked maenads wear streaked nebrises,
high they wield the thyrsus and they crown it with ivy,
a wild race stirs them, frenzied they cry "evoe",
hands dripping with blood, I want to see too.
Let me climb to the top, the top of the fir!