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

Arnone relates an episode, reported by

Guglielmo Lo Curzio, according to whom Di

Giovanni “once stated that a simple couplet

of a country tune sung by a humble farmer

in a remote road among the fields, (...) was

to decide his destiny and turn him into one

of the most convinced and obstinate dialect

writers, yearning for light and sun even in

literature.”^4

Carmelo Sgroi tells of a letter to

Lipparini, in which Di Giovanni states that,

by choosing dialect, he needed “air air air.”^5

The “langage vernaculaire” that Henri

Gobard considers the true “langue

maternelle” and “noblesse des peuples,” “le

droit imprescriptible des ethnies, le droit de

naissance linguistique, la marque indélèbile

de l’appartenance, le scibbloleth irreversible

de l’identité fière d’elle même de toute