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

populist ─ who had freed themselves from

the Arcadian sirens of old Meli. The poet, a

man at the same time like other men and

different from them, lives the life of

everyone, but with a particular sensibility

that makes him a thief ─ Buttitta had written

in one of his poems ─ because he goes

among his fellow men, sinks his hands in

their hearts and opens everyone’s brains /

like a pomegranate / and sucks their

thoughts.”^3

Buttitta rather assimilates the craft of the

poet to that of the peasant, who writes in the

earth as the poet writes in the minds. If

poeta nascitur, the refinement of the tèkne

lets him reach high summits: “one is born a

poet but also becomes one.”^4 On the

strength of these potentials and

achievements, the poet can leave furrows in