Today we read La tigre assenza, by Cristina Campo. Cristina Campo was a sickly child, homeschooled, and grew to be very shy and reserved. She always had a very close relationship with her parents, both successful artists. The subtitle of this excruciating poem is “pro patre et matre,” which in Latin means “for father and mother.” In it, the pain of their death and their absence from her life is likened to a tiger that devoured every part of her, except her mouth, so the only thing she can now do is to pray. The original: Ahi che la Tigre,
la Tigre Assenza,
o amati,
ha tutto divorato
di questo volto rivolto
a voi! La bocca sola
pura
prega ancora
voi: di pregare ancora
perché la Tigre,
la Tigre Assenza,
o amati,
non divori la bocca
e la preghiera…\ The music in this episode is Domenico Scarlatti’s Keyboard Sonata in D minor, K.32, recorded by Sylvia Marlowe (in the public domain).
