Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Roberto Baronti Marchiò

Statistics

People make light of the fact
that among the wreck of a Roman train
today a young woman died.
In a major accident
a single lost life is of little account.

I’ve always dreaded statistics,
of the one that does not affect the average.
I am unsettled
by the life reduced to an empty variance
a negligible index of dispersion.

Who knows if in the crash
she too, an expert in statistics,
thought about it
that with that one
with that absolute mean deviation
we can calculate death.

Statistica

Statistica

Si sorvola sul fatto che
tra le lamiere di un treno romano
oggi è morta una giovane donna.
Per un grave incidente è poca cosa
una sola vita perduta.

Ho sempre avuto terrore della statistica,
dell’uno che non sposta la media.
Mi impressiona
la vita ridotta a vuota varianza
a trascurabile indice di dispersione.

Chissà se nello schianto
l’ha pensato anche lei,
ricercatrice in scienze statistiche,
che con quell’uno
con quello scarto medio assoluto
possiamo calcolare la morte.
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Statistics

People make light of the fact
that among the wreck of a Roman train
today a young woman died.
In a major accident
a single lost life is of little account.

I’ve always dreaded statistics,
of the one that does not affect the average.
I am unsettled
by the life reduced to an empty variance
a negligible index of dispersion.

Who knows if in the crash
she too, an expert in statistics,
thought about it
that with that one
with that absolute mean deviation
we can calculate death.

Statistics

People make light of the fact
that among the wreck of a Roman train
today a young woman died.
In a major accident
a single lost life is of little account.

I’ve always dreaded statistics,
of the one that does not affect the average.
I am unsettled
by the life reduced to an empty variance
a negligible index of dispersion.

Who knows if in the crash
she too, an expert in statistics,
thought about it
that with that one
with that absolute mean deviation
we can calculate death.
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère