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

vernacular language, but rarely with any

authenticity of expression: Rocco Ritorto

(Caulonia 1924) is balanced between irony

and feeling (Spilazzi [Threads], 1969;

Hjangazzi [Gleams], 1974); Domenico Vitale

(Soverato 1895), tends to bring to life a world

of memory, suspended between reality and

dream (‘I zzippuli); Emanuele di Bartolo

(Crucoli 1901) turns to a type of meditative

poetry (Andannu... vidennu [Going...Seeing],

1962; Picatu [Sin], 1971; Siminta n’tu carrolu

[Seeds in the Road], 1973); and then the

poet-farmers Micu Pelle (Risbijamundi

[Waking the World], 1977) and Giuseppe

Coniglio (Calabria contadina, 1973); the satirist

Francesco Mazzè (S. Nicola da Crissa 1926);

the most experimental, at the linguistic level,

Peppino Valentini from Cosenza (A mio figlio

Rosarbino); the scourge Francesco Besaldo