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

Mongibello, October 21, 1918. Or 1128. Or

maybe 1848. here in the Islamic island,

devastated by the springs of the Prophet, the

centuries don’t count, time slides

imperceptibly over the Mediterranean,

without any sense. Here everything is

Arabian. Even the cramps in an empty

stomach...”^3

To the typology of the “Saracen” belong

the characters of Calì’s poetic world. As for

example Ciccio Bagongo, Frate Gilormo, the

narrative voice of Lu lamentu cubbu pi

Rocca Ciravula [The Solemn Lament for

Rocca Ciravula] and all the “sgranci,” [crabs]

like Yossiph Scyrin of the omonymous

posthumous ballad, written this time in an

Italian that both assimilates and parodies the

expressive patterns of the neo-formalism of

the Sixties, with a strong undercurrent of

irony. Master Giuseppe Cirino, from the