Moira Egan is an American poet/translator who lives in Rome. She has published six volumes of poetry (four in the U.S.; two in Italy); the 'Scented Sonnets' of this essay come from her seventh collection, Synæsthesium. Her poems, essays, and translations have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies in the US and abroad. She has been a Mid Atlantic Arts Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and has had writing fellowships at the St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, Malta; the Civitella Ranieri Center; the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center; and the James Merrill House.