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

natural complexity of an authentic dialectal

“consciousness,” as it emerges from the

collection Pampuglie [Woodchips],

published posthumously (1973) and edited

by Mario Trofa.

It is indeed from this dimension of the

self that Trofa extracts the most significant

moments and insights of his dialect writing,

cultivated with extreme reserve and solitary

discretion, but also with a scrupulous and

refined labor limae, which has yielded in the

end truly exceptional aesthetic results, such

as those in the compositions “Sole

d’autunne” [Autumn Sun], “La voce

dell’òrghene” [The Voice of the Organ], in

which the “twilight tonality” noted by

Ettore Paratore in the preface to Pampùglie,

is an excellent example of Trofa’s evocative

skills ─ based on hermetic allusions and light

imagery ─, as he expresses the most