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

ALBINO PIERRO

Albino Pierro’s (Tursi, 1916-1995) poetic

experience began in September 23, 1959, and

he has been able to place his “fresh idiom” at

the center of international interest, attaining

the nomination for the Nobel Prize. Pierro

knows that dialects are losing ground as

habitual means of communication, and for

this very reason they can become privileged

means of expression. From Rome, his city of

exile, this professor of philosophy has turned

inward to the inner voice of the “paise”

(hometown), whose words, found again in

memory and lacking any kind of literary

tradition, are transformed into an

instrument of a polyphonic poetry, of a

dramatic expressionism based on percussive

rhythms and very dense contradictions.

Prevalent is the myth of the village, of his