so I came to the days of the Resistance
I didn't know anything but style
It was a style made totally of light
memorable recognition
of sun. It could never fade
not even for an instant
even as Europe trembled
on its deadliest evening
we escaped from Casarsa
with our stuff in a cart
to a ruined village
among canals and vineyards it was pure light
my brother left, it was a mute morning
March, in a train, disguised
his pistol in a book it was pure light
he lived a long time in the mountains
which shone like paradise in the blue gloom
of Friulian plains it was pure light
in the attic of our farmhouse my mother
always stared at those mountains
hopeless, she saw the future it was pure light
with a few poor people I lived
a glorious life, persecuted
by despicable rhetoric it was pure light
the day of death came
Independence Day, the martyred world
knew itself again in the light...
the light was the thought of justice
I didn't know what kind of justice
all light equal to all other light
then it changed, the light like an uncertain morning
a waxing dawn that spread all over
Friulian fields and canals
struggling workers in the light
the rising dawn was a light I mean
beyond the eternity of style
in history, justice has been
the realization of a humane
distribution of money, hope
maybe, brighter than that
new light


About this poem
"'The Resistance and Its Light' was translated during a moment of personal grief in which Pasolini's structured luminescence was a balm. It's from his book 'Roman Poems.'"
-Brandon Brown

About Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini was born on March 5, 1922, in Bologna, Italy. He was a film director and a poet. Some of his collections include "La meglio gioventu" (1954) and "Poesia in forma di rosa" (1964). Pasolini died in 1975.

About Brandon Brown
Brandon Brown is the author of "Top 40" (Roof Books, 2014). He lives in Oakland, Calif.

***
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.

(c) 2015 Brandon Brown. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate