Eat up, Moish’, no need to be polite! Have another glass of this fine red wine! You’ve got to taste this quiche – another bite! Some roasted chicken? Go on, suck the wing! Eat with your hands, you’re among family! Just take a gander at this artichoke, all golden fried...these latkes? They’re no joke! They melt right in your mouth, Moish, believe me… Take your pick: cream cheese, sharp cheddar or Swiss? Another hamentash? Some fruit? Now slurp a thimbleful of schnapps – it’s the bees’ knees! Down the hatch! Relax...go ahead, burp! Some strudel? Just a teeny-tiny bit? Finish it off – around here it won’t last. Too much? No, no, all of it! I insist... A cup of coffee and a good night’s rest – tomorrow things will work out for the best.
Crescenzo Del Monte (1868-1935) wrote in Jewish-Roman dialect about daily life in the Jewish ghetto of Rome. He lived in the brief period between the destruction of the ghetto--the last in Italy--and the fascist racial laws of 1938, and his poetry is an extremely valuable trove of the Jewish-Roman dialect and culture from that period.
Marc Alan Di Martino is the author of the collections Still Life with City (Pski's Porch, 2022) and Unburial (Kelsay, 2019). His poems and translations appear in On the Seawall, Pulsebeat, Rattle, THINK, West Review and many other journals and anthologies. His work has been nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. His translation Day Lasts Forever: Selected Poems of Mario dell'Arco will be published by World Poetry Books in 2024. He lives in Italy.
