reading

Selected Poems: 1990-2010

Translated from the Italian by Marco Sonzogni

(An Italian-English Bilingual edition)

Pietro De Marchi

ESSENTIAL TRANSLATIONS SERIES 7

GUERNICA

TORONTO – BUFFALO – BERKELEY – LANCASTER (U.K.)

2012

Translator’s Note

Da minha aldeia vejo quanto da terra se pode ver do Universo...

Por isso a minha aldeia é tão grande como outra terra qualquer,

porque eu sou do tamanho do que vejo

e não do tamanho da minha altura ...

— Fernando Pessoa, ‘Liberdade’

Pietro De Marchi was born at Seregno (near Milan) in 1958. He graduated in literature at the University of Milan and this was followed by a doctorate at the University of Zurich. Since 1984 he has lived in Zurich, where he teaches Italian Literature as a Titularprofessor at the university. He also teaches as professeur associé at the University of Neuchatel (where he coordinates courses and seminars for the Master in Comparative Literature) and also at the University of Berne.

His publications include the edition of Francesco Bellati’s Poesie milanesi (Milano: Schewiller, 1996) and two books of literary criticism: Dove portano le parole. Sulla poesia di Giorgio Orelli e altro Novecento (Lecce: Manni, 2002) and Uno specchio di parole scritte. Da Parini a Pusterla, da Gozzi a Meneghello (Firenze: Cesati, 2003). He has also edited (with Paolo Di Stefano) Per Giorgio Orelli (Bellinzona: Casagrande, 2001) and (with Giuliana Adamo) Volta la carta la ze finia. Luigi Meneghello. Biografia per immagini (Milano: Effigie, 2008).

He has recently curated (with Simone Soldini) the exhibition and the catalogue for Giorgio Orelli. I giorni della vita (Museo d’arte Mendrisio, Casa Croci, 1 September-13 November 2011). Since October 2010, he has been directing a research project into Swiss writers of prose in Italian for the Fondo Nazionale Svizzero. Currently he is editing Lavori d’autunno, a collection of short stories by Silvio Guarnieri (Lecce: Manni, 2012).

As a poet, De Marchi has published various pamphlets and two collections: Parabole smorzate and Replica (Bellinzona: Casagrande, 1999 and 2006). In 2007 Replica was awarded the Premio della Fondazione Schiller. In 2009 Der Schwan und die Schaukel/Il cigno e l’altalena appeared. This is a bi-lingual (Italian and German) anthology of his published and unpublished writing, edited and translated by Christoph Ferber (Zürich: Limmat Verlag).

In the introduction to De Marchi’s first collection, Giorgio Orelli – the most distinguished Swiss poet writing in Italian – singled out “arguzia,” wit, as the key characteristic of De Marchi’s poetry: a poetry, as Orelli describes it, full of “roba scelta,” of well-selected readings (from Orelli himself, from other Swiss poets like Fabio Pusterla, as well as from major European poets). And De Marchi’s wit moves with deceiving subtleness from the unforgiving focus of his eye to the unassuming tone of his verse. Poised between a benevolent smile and a bitter grimace, De Marchi is always prepared to face the music of what happens and to recount it in “the language of all.”

As De Marchi himself observes, “when we write we are alone and words are really what we have.” This is why he tries to write poetry in ordinary language. This apparently unassuming standpoint actually camouflages De Marchi’s commitment to the communicative power of poetry. Thus he patiently weaves believable narratives and emotions that are based on shared experiences yet enable him to explore his own individuality and realisations. De Marchi’s disposition, though profoundly intellectual and rational, remains at all times open to the unexpected and the unknown and to their aesthetic and ethical implications.

The poems that follow – selected by the poet himself from published as well as unpublished or uncollected work – represent the variety of De Marchi’s poetry. This is a poet who speaks clearly, who does not indulge in half-hearted exchanges, and who is willing to read between the lines. This is a poet who relishes the here and now and the epiphany possible in every moment – a poet who is therefore ready to seize and share what is here and not elsewhere. Reading De Marchi, one is reminded of Pessoa’s predicament:

From my village I see how much of the earth we can see from the Universe …

that’s why my village is as big as any other one,

because I’m as high as the things I see

and not as high as my height.

This anthology represents two decades of poetry: the mapped universe of a poet whose measured voice and under-stated language are a constant challenge to the translator. I have responded to the challenge by seizing and sharing the stories and the emotions of the author.

Marco Sonzogni

Here & Not Elsewhere

FROM PARABOLE SMORZATE / LOBS (1999)

Parabole smorzate

Se l’avversario è più forte che mai

se con urlo strozzato si avventa sulla palla

e affonda di diritto

e incrocia col rovescio a due mani

tu non lo assecondare nel gioco a fondo campo

perché alla lunga ti sfiata ti spompa e alla fine

non avrai scampo un suo passante

ti infilerà

Tu invece rompi il suo ritmo

smorza la palla, liftala, dàlle

più effetto che puoi

fa’ che ricada appena al di là della

rete.

Lobs

If your opponent is stronger than ever

if with a strangled cry he goes for the ball

and attacks with a deep forehand

and a cross-court, two-hand backhand

don’t indulge in baseline play

because in the long run you’ll be out of breath and in the end

Contents

Translator’s Note

Here & Not Elsewhere

FROM PARABOLE SMORZATE / LOBS (1999)