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

This flattering assessment was, in our

judgment, totally confirmed after a few

years in the collection that marks his full

maturity: Nu parlà zettenne (1982). Here

Savastano takes up and amplifies his

meditative themes, veined here and there by

confessional effusions, in an aura alternately

fabulous and essentially dramatic. One of

the shortest examples: “The whole year is to

weave the song, / but summer is closed

muteness / an impassioned hush that

doesn’t quiet us / like the wave upon the

sand of the sea. // The wave that comes and

goes and doesn’t rest, / the whole night

long, grandma, it vents its woes / with its

language that does not take hold of us...”

In matters of language and style,

Savastano has carried out a truly valuable

salvage operation: spurred by the urgency of

an imaginary conversation with his