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

early Palazzeschi. The results, even though

noteworthy, remain nevertheless in the

confines of an effort that comes to terms

with the near and not so near past.

The true novelty is ushered in by Mauro

Marè who, after his 1977 debut with Ossi di

pèrsica [Peach Stones], (with a preface by

Giuseppe d’Arrigo), gradually finds a

personal and original direction that utilizes

Roman dialect in an experimental way, but

without disavowing the patrimony of

tradition. But the poet makes the

patrimony’s eyes spin, its hair stand on end,

its teeth fall off. Already the poetic attitude

found in Cicci de sellero, [Celery Heart]

1979, is different from that of a few years

before; one can see that he is fascinated by

spoken speech, but more for what it offers in

the deformations of a stuttering ideal or of a

schoolchild who bungles language than of a