Dialect Poetry of Southern Italy (Italian Poetry in Translation Book 2)

his aim is to achieve a certain financial well-

being that will allow him to devote himself

exclusively to poetry. But the outbreak of

W.W.II thwarts his plans. In 1944 he fight

with the partisans; the following year he is

arrested by the Fascists (he was later saved

by the Allies). Back in Sicily again, he finds

his storehouses looted and is forced to return

to Milan, where he takes up his business

again. Thanks to the interest of his fellow-

townsman Renato Guttuso, he meets

Vittorini and Quasimodo. In 1954 he

publishes Lu pani si chiama pani [Bread Is

Bread], which is followed by: Lamentu pi

Turiddu Carnivali [Lament for the Carnival],

1956; La peddi nova [The New Skin], 1963; La

paglia bruciata [Burnt Straw], 1968; Io faccio il

poeta [I Am a Poet], 1972; Poeta in piazza [Poet

in the Square], 1974; Le pietre nere [Black