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

rare and controlled.

This is characteristic of Altobello’s

poetry, poised between the intention to

remain very close to the cadences and

syntactic rhythms of the popular characters,

to the communal intimacy (of both men and

nature) of that dying world, and a strictly

erudite need to elevate native speech, the

“dirty talk,” to the literary dignity of Italian

lyric tradition. To this end he turns, with

considerable risk, to one of the most ancient

and rigorous compositions: the sonnet. In

essence this “workshop” operation of fine

linguistic craftsmanship is Altobello’s poetic

challenge; and it is not superfluous to

underline that, aside from a few rare,

inevitable misses, inherent in the difference

of expressive levels (the popular and the

cultured), the Author is able to achieve a

natural symbiosis, all the more precious for