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

Tricarico (1923-1953), one of the most

significant Italian poets of the Neorealstic

period, whose popular elements have been

underlined (cf. Grassi, 1965), but not totally

charted nor reconstructed through lemmas

and concordances.

Even the refined Hermetic poet

Leonardo Sinisgalli from Montemurro (1908-

1981) toyed with dialect, going as far as

collecting a few “poems from Basilicata

selected and transcribed from the

indigenous dialects.” See with what

keenness and stylistic force he presents those

texts: “Basilicata is a land of passage: we

poor natives are the only travelers who

throw out their bags and knapsacks under

the overhangs of these desolate stations.[...]

The people don’t walk, they trudge, they

drag themselves here and there. The great

clamor is made by roosters and jackasses.