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

poetry.

‘A canniatura, published by Editori

Associati di Roma in 1993, crowns Serrao’s

dialect journey (the preface is by Giacinto

Spagnoletti). The book shows expressive

suppleness while remaining on the course

charted by Di Giacomo, Capurro, Russo.

Moreover, there is in Serrao a feeling of

irritation towards all that has become sad

and trite; his poems are like crystals in which

Venetian glassmakers have put more lead

with respect to previous products, so that if

on the one hand there is a loss of sparkle, on

the other there is a gain in poetic-expressive

substance. Serrao does not abandon his

regional tradition, but wants to add to it that

touch of inexactness or too much exactness

that comes from the tradition of the

province, so that language may be validated

by it and become better organized. On the