Author Description

Poetry. Translated from Italian by Michael Palma. Giovanni Raboni is considered one of the finest and most significant Italian poets of the last half- century. This volume contains a generous selection from thirteen collections of his poetry, including Gesta Romanorum (1952-1954), Ogni Terzo Pensiero / Every Third Thought (1989 -1993) and Barlumi di Storia / Glimmers of History (2002), and thus presents his accomplishment in all its scope and depth. Here are developed his major themes: love and loss; the rewards and responsibilities of being a son, a husband, a father and a lover; and the sweep of Italian history from Mussolini to Berlusconi. The course of the poems, both conversational and stylistically inventive, bears witness to the private pains and joys of the author's life and the public shames and outrages of his times. The volume includes an introduction by Patrizia Valduga, herself a notable poet and Raboni's companion for the last two decades of his life; a talk by Raboni on the origins and meanings of one of his most acclaimed poems, "The Wedding"; and a long and revealing interview in which he discusses his childhood, his career, his relationships, his politics and his poetry. "A subtle rendering of the work of one of postwar Italy's great poetic talents, who deserves to be for better known here. Raboni's work offers an acutely calibrated register of both outer and inner seismic activity, and Michael Palma catches his essential tone beautifully." Jonathan Galassi "Michael Palma has long been among our leading translators of Italian poetry, and his new selection of poems by Giovanni Raboni a major Italian poet who has yet to receive his due in English is a wonderfully welcome confluence of talents." Geoffrey Brock"