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

have entered common usage and been

assimilated into Sicilian, according to an

ancient tradition of the Sicilian people, as it

had happened with Greek, Latin, French,

Spanish, Arabic.

In his search for a national Sicilian

identity, Calì looks to Arabian civilization,

more than the Magna Grecia, also in homage

to the economic and cultural splendor the

island experienced under Arabian

domination. Saraceni di Sicilia [Saracens of

Sicily] are the men of his land; this, writes

Giuliano Manacorda, “is something more

than a metaphor, it is a real link of history,

blood, names, (...) it is the option for the

marginalized part of his people.”^2

In Calì there is a true process of

identification: “My name is, if memory

serves, Abdùl Kaly’. I was born in

Linguaglossa, on the sulphurous slopes of