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

with Ecche lu fridde, a collection of poems

that are short in length, but have the appeal

of certain fragments of Greek lyrics. Let’s

read, for instance, the first lines of the page

that lends its title to the volume: “Here

comes the cold again. Once more /

December, and it’s fifty-two. / Year after

year to make summer pass / so much work,

until the first / wind of August, suddenly, /

brought you the smell of Autumn.

The return of the cold, which in the usual

speech expresses nothing more than the

natural change of seasons, here is charged

with symbolic value, subtly alluding to the

decline of life, under the onrush of time that

cannot and will not wait. Apparently it is

time that passes and carries us away, but in

reality it is we that pass inexorably, year

after year, finally sinking into nothingness.

Events can repeat themselves, seasons renew