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

book of poems.”

Ancient words help the modern poet to

find his secret hiding place. Dialect, that

belonged to the fathers but not the children,

cannot be employed to signify a world of

paper, made of low houses, resigned

farmers, abused poor people, deprivations,

rebellions or fairy tales if it wishes to be an

instrument that “conquers the silence of a

thousand centuries.” It must become pliable,

reinvent itself, adapt to the needs of

contemporary expression, become “language

of poetry” after having been “language of

reality,” attempt even the haiku (“Long

summer, / sounds and songs over the sea. /

The cicadas dance”), in sum, make itself, as

signifier to overcharge itself with meaning

and aspire at least to a “life of paper.”

With A vite i tutte i jurne^5 [Everyday Life]