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

poetry, to his first collection, Sintimentali;

stressing the lyrical-elegiac aspect, his poetry

now becomes poetry of memory: black

stones are the bitter memories that have

become stratified. Buttitta is no longer the

poet in the piazza: he is old and his villa in

Aspra is visited y journalists and poets, he is

considered a wise man. But he is sad: he does

not fear death, but solitude saddens him;

even his hope for a better world ─ always

steadfast ─ seems to be waning: pursued by

haste, men seem to him ghosts or talking

machines, “puppets of fog”: they have lost

their blood and voice. Now the poet can

contemplate The Mystery and ask the great

question asked by men of all epochs, the

same as Leopardi’s shepherd: who am I and

where do I come from. And conclude that

mystery is life’s greatest, most beautiful

dream: it is poetry.