Toni Morrison Day

Toni Morrison (1931-2019) was an American novelist, essayist, editor, and professor. She was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She was also the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, for her 1987 novel “Beloved”, and of many more awards.
She wrote a volume of poetry, “Five Poems” (2002), from which “Eve Remembering” is taken .

February 18, her birthday, has officially become “Toni Morrison Day”.

Eve Remembering

1
I tore from a limb fruit that had lost its green.
My hands were warmed by the heat of an apple
Fire red and humming insight.
I bit sweet power to the core.
How can I say what it was like?
The taste! The taste undid my eyes
And led me far from the gardens planted for a child
To wildernesses deeper than any master’s call.

2
Now these cool hands guide what they once caressed;
Lips savor what they have kissed.
My eyes now pool their light
Better the summit to see.
Better the summit to see.

3
I would do it all over again:
Be the harbor and set the sail,
Loose the breeze and harness the gale,
Cherish the harvest of what I have been.
Better the summit to scale.
Better the summit to be.

The poem makes reference to the biblical Eve and her experience in the Garden of Eden, biting the apple from the tree of knowledge. This is a metaphor for the loss of the innocence of childhood.
Here the woman is reflecting on the transition from youthful thinking to a worldly understanding: her learning is an essential part of her growth, and she has no regrets.

Eva ricorda…
1
Ho strappato da un ramo un frutto che aveva perso il suo verde.
Le mie mani erano scaldate dal calore di una mela
rosso fuoco e grondante intuizione.
Ho addentato quella dolce energia fino al torsolo.
Come faccio a dire com’era?
Il sapore! Oh, il sapore mi ha aperto gli occhi
e mi ha portata lontano da quei giardini piantati per un bimbo
verso lande selvagge più profonde della chiamata di un qualsiasi padrone.

2
Ora queste mani fresche guidano ciò che una volta solo accarezzavano;
le labbra assaporano ciò che baciavano
i miei occhi ora raccolgono la loro luce
per meglio scorgere la vetta,
per meglio scorgere la vetta.

3
Lo rifarei ancora:
essere il porto e salpare
allentare le vele al vento e imbrigliare la tempesta,
amare il frutto di ciò che ero,
per meglio scalare la vetta,
per meglio essere io vetta.
(L.Z.)

_{Image: detail from Hugo van der Goes – The Fall (after 1479)}