Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
writer and poet. In his mature works, he employed linguistic blending in the search for meaningful and archetypal relations between distant cultures.
His works and translations have been published by international magazines (as ''
Words Without Borders
''Words Without Borders'' (''WWB'') is an international magazine open to international exchange through translation, publication, and promotion of the world's best writing and authors who are not easily accessible to English-speaking readers. The ...
'', ''Swans Commentary'', and ''
Ars Interpres
''Ars Interpres'' was an online and in-print international literary journal, originating in Stockholm. It published primarily contemporary English language poetry and English translations of modern Scandinavian and European poetry, as well as arti ...
''). On his blending experiments, he uses also Japanese,
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
.
Poetry and linguistic blending
On the way of
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...
,
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
's ''Cantos'' and
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...
's ''
The Waste Land
''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important English-language poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United ...
'', Monte thinks that "…if we admit that some archetypal ideas are common among our planet inhabitants, then we can state, in the sense meant by Borges, that just one "Book" has been written, as an evidence of the original and permanent cultural unity of the world and it contains all the chaotic fragments ever thought and written by people searching for the deep truth of things...".
Different languages can be approached and mixed "to transmit something that apparently is far in space and time" (on what was defined as ''a meta-communicative way''). On this thinking, a ''blending'' author can "compose" poems and works without using his own verses, but only other poets' lines (and sometimes this is Monte's peculiarity), remembering every time, in the beginning, the names of the authors. On another experiment, in fact, Monte puts together, in a common archetypal idea, lines of
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
, Dante and Blake.
If Monte translates, for instance, the first verses of Genesis or any other holy texts in two or three languages, "…we realize that the new and different sounds, irrespective of our linguistic knowledge, suggest new, universal, cosmic vibrations that the original version didn't succeed in transmitting. In any case they reveal the complexity of reading different levels":
''In principio diviserunt Elohim / coelum et terram / and the land was left barren / et les ombres noires / enveloppaient les profondeurs / bade korgolòdei dar ruie / oghionusoh parmisad / et aura divina / super oceani undas'' (''Genesis'', Words Without Borders, 2004)
Alison Phipps, expert in Intercultural Studies, defines this form of blending as an ''embroidering gossamer''.
In his latest experiments, on Swans Commentary, the
visual
The visual system is the physiological basis of visual perception (the ability to detect and process light). The system detects, transduces and interprets information concerning light within the visible range to construct an image and buil ...
coloured arrangement of verses (one colour for each one of the poem's selected authors) is important in conveying the intended effect of his
multilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...
works.
The French writer Orlando de Rudder, thinks that Monte's attempts are the beginning of a new ''"synthèse" des langues'', a form of ''Babel Library'' where all the world poets live together, syncretistically, common universal feelings. The Italian writer
Claudio Magris
Claudio Magris (; born 10 April 1939) is an Italian scholar, translator and writer. He was a senator for Friuli-Venezia Giulia from 1994 to 1996.
Life
Magris graduated from the University of Turin, where he studied German studies, and has been ...
thinks that this kind of poetry is definable as ''meticciato organico'' (''organic blending'').
Selected bibliography
* ''Tremila mondi in un solo istante di vita'', ed. Della Battaglia, 2000
* ''Ultima lettera'' on ''Sergio Quinzio – profezie di un'esistenza'', Rubbettino 2000, a cura di M. Iritano – authors:
Gianni Vattimo
Gianteresio Vattimo (; 4 January 1936 – 19 September 2023) was an Italian philosopher and politician.
Biography
Gianteresio Vattimo was born in Turin, Piedmont. He studied philosophy under the existentialist Luigi Pareyson at the Universit ...
,
Umberto Galimberti Umberto is a masculine Italian given name. It is the Italian form of Humbert. People with the name include:
* King Umberto I of Italy (1844–1900)
* King Umberto II of Italy (1904–1983)
* Prince Umberto, Count of Salemi (1889–1918)
* Umberto I ...
,
Claudio Magris
Claudio Magris (; born 10 April 1939) is an Italian scholar, translator and writer. He was a senator for Friuli-Venezia Giulia from 1994 to 1996.
Life
Magris graduated from the University of Turin, where he studied German studies, and has been ...
,
Guido Ceronetti
Guido Ceronetti (24 August 1927, in Turin – 13 September 2018, in Cetona) was an Italian poet, philosopher, novelist, translator, journalist and playwright.
In 1970, he founded the Theater of the Sensitive. His works are archived at the Ca ...
,
Erri De Luca
Enrico "Erri" De Luca (born 20 May 1950, Naples) is an Italian novelist, translator and poet. He has been recognized by critic Giorgio De Rienzo of ''Corriere della Sera'' as "the writer of the decade". He is also known for his opposition to the ...
, Gino Girolomoni, Guido Monte, Sergio Givone, Nynfa Bosco (about it, see:
* ''Leuconoe'', Nuova Ipsa, 2004
* ''Il Niente richiamato all'esistenza'' (with Vittorio Cozzo), iraccontidiluvi.org, 2004
* ''Cosmopolitan multilingualism'', Happa no kofu (Kawasaki, Tokyo), 2006
* ''Langues et mixité'' (Introduction de Marie Rennard), Annecy (France), 2007
* ''Viage. Per una "fenomenologia" metacomunicativa'' (with F. Saieva), Nuova Ipsa Editore, 2008
Translations
* ''Palermo beat'', by Patrick Waites, ed. della Battaglia 2000Article on ricerca.repubblica.it /ref>
* ''Si cela un ramo...'' Lucidamente.com, 2007
*''Xenia I'' (from ''Satura'') by Eugenio Montale, LanguageandCulture.net, 2007
* ''Bucolica'' IV, (18–22, ''The harmony'') by Virgil, LanguageandCulture.net, 2007
* ''Pasolini: Fragments Of 1968'', Swans-Commentary, 2008
Antoine Cassar
Antoine Christopher A. F. Cassar (born 1978 in London) is a Maltese poet and translator. His book-length poem ''Erbgħin Jum'' (Forty Days, Ede, 2017) was awarded the National Book Prize in 2018, and shortlisted for the European Poet of Freedom a ...
*
Joseph Campbell
Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of t ...
*
Words Without Borders
''Words Without Borders'' (''WWB'') is an international magazine open to international exchange through translation, publication, and promotion of the world's best writing and authors who are not easily accessible to English-speaking readers. The ...
Miami University Middletown
Miami University Middletown or Miami Middletown is a satellite campus of Miami University in Middletown, Ohio. It was founded in 1966 and is the oldest regional campus of Miami University and Ohio's first regional campus.''Fragments'', on Cipher Journal
Ars Interpres
''Ars Interpres'' was an online and in-print international literary journal, originating in Stockholm. It published primarily contemporary English language poetry and English translations of modern Scandinavian and European poetry, as well as arti ...