The Faber Book Of

20th-Century Italian Poems
edited by Jamie McKendrick.
Twentieth century Italian poets are largely unknown, barring a few names such as Eugenio Montale (1896 – 1981), who was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor, translator and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975, and who came to hold the same level of importance as T. S. Eliot did within his own culture as well as internationally. Then there’s Salvatore Quasimodo (1901 –1968), also a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1959), and is considered alongside   Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888 –1970) as one of the foremost Italian poets of the 20th century. Then what? D’ Annunzio?(Gaetano Gabriele D'Annunzio-1863 –1938) better known nowadays  as the precursor of the ideals and techniques of Italian fascism and for his strong influence on the ideology of Benito Mussolini (although never directly involved in fascist government politics in Italy) for which he has acquired a certain infamy.


Jump forward to recent times, say the last  twenty odd years, and there has been an improvement, a breach in this lack of curiosity, a slight awakening from the world of English language to this nation’s verse, brought about by the publications of translated  books by the likes of - Cesare Pavese,  Attilio Bertolucci, Primo Levi, and Bartolo Cattifi, yet even these - outside certain circles - have varying levels of success, or critical notice.
Another issue that can confuse & bewilder the individual entering this world for the first time, can be the degree of division within its sphere – “Italian poetry has as many different schools and factions as it’s politics has Parties – I Crepusculari, Hermeticism, Gruppo 63, etc.”. Which is where a broad based Anthology such as this can help, it sides with no particular group or faction, it merely offers an overview and as such can introduce - even if on a basic level - you to a whole new world of verse.


Yet this Anthology wants more, James McKendrick’ s knowledge of Italian literature and culture is profound, as is his love and respect, this he wants to share with us, to give an impression of the depth and complexity of Italian poetry in the twentieth century. Although this is not a Bilingual edition, which probably would improve it, would allow comparison with the original poems, but this is a minor foible, and one unrelated to me as I read no Italian.



.

Woman from Genoa

You bought me a little seaweed
In your hair and a scent of wind

                that came from afar and arrives weighted

      With warmth on your bronzed body:

                                                         --oh the divine

                                                         Artlessness of your slim figure-

                                                         Not love not agony, a ghost.

                                                        A shade of necessity that wanders

                                                        serenely and ineluctably into the soul,

                                                        And dissolves it in joy, in serene enchantment

                                                        so that the sirocco may carry it

                                                        Into infinity.

                                                        How small the world is and light in your hands!

(Dino Campana-1885-1932)trans, Isadore Saloman

Jamie McKendrick.

Faber & Faber.
Contemporary Writers.