by Johanna Bishop

A good anthology is a fine buffet. A good anthology of poetry in translation is a buffet of dishes that are probably new to you. A good anthology of contemporary poetry in translation is a buffet of dishes that are new to everyone at the party. And Tempo: Excursions in 21st-Century Italian Poetry, published in 2023 by Parthian Press and edited by Luca Paci, offers a delectable overview of a specific literary scene that can’t be easily sampled elsewhere, at least not in one place.

Paci, a translingual poet and translator who teaches Italian Studies at Cardiff University, has an in-depth knowledge of the poetry world in both languages, making him a perfect guide and mediator. His selection of poets currently working in Italian is highly representative—these are well-established figures, most of them mid-career—yet covers a range of very different styles and subject matter. We find poems that are experimental, lyrical, written for performance, in prose form, in rhymed quatrains; about politics, spirituality, sexuality, grief. They draw their words from antiquity and ad slogans, from the dissecting table and the factory floor. The country’s strong tradition of dialect poetry and its overall linguistic diversity is also represented, with poems in Sardinian, in Venetian, or incorporating Somali.

The translation approaches, too, are varied and effective, and as one of the translators, I’m proud to be in such company. Some poets have been translated by more than one person, allowing readers to pinpoint the original voice through a sort of geometric triangulation. Some instead have a single translator whom they have worked with closely, or have co-translated the poems themselves—in one case, the pieces were actually written in English and translated back into Italian by the author. Overall, the versions are presented facing-page. This has, fortunately, almost come to be the norm for poetry these days, at least from European languages. But since doubling the length is far easier with brief collections than large anthologies, kudos to the publisher for letting the book run to three hundred pages rather than jettisoning the originals.

The same generosity with space extends to the selection from each poet. Generally five pieces, it is long enough to help the reader form a clear picture, remember whose work they’ve enjoyed, and seek out more of it in existing or future collections—one of the main things an anthology is for. In short, this is both a captivating book in its own right and a valuable tool for anyone interested in Italian literature. Poetry, after all, has been at its core since the thirteenth century: an ever-fertile tradition that is still mutating and thriving in the twenty-first.     

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Tempo: Excursions in 21st-Century Italian Poetry

• Edited by Luca Paci
• Poets: Antonella Anedda, Franco Buffoni, Dome Bulfaro, Maria Grazia Calandrone, Chandra Livia Candiani, Milo De Angelis, Matteo Fantuzzi, Shirin Ramzanali Fanel, Fabio Franzin, Marco Giovenale, Mariangela Gualtieri, Andrea Inglese, Rosaria Lo Russo, Valerio Magrelli, Guido Mazzoni, Umberto Piersanti, Laura Pugno, Ida Travi, Luigi Trucillo, Patrizia Valduga, Cristina Vivinetto, Lello Voce
• Translators: Bhikkhu Abhinando, Craig Arnold, Johanna Bishop, Jacob S. D. Blakesley, Geoffrey Brock, Patrizio Ceccagnoli, Martin Corless-Smith, Linh Dinh, Moira Egan, Shirin Ramzanali Fazel, Patricio Ferrari, Lara Ferrini, Marco Giovenale, Tommaso Jacopo Gorla, Susanna Maggioni, Jamie McKendrick, Anthony Molino, Dylan J. Montanari, Matthew F. Rusnak, Jennifer Scappettone, James Schwarten, Olivia E. Sears, Susan Stewart, Serena Todesco, Cristina Viti, Justin Vitiello, William Wall, Alexandra Wilk
• 308 pages
• ISBN 978-1-914595-69-1
• Publisher: Parthian Books (2023)
• Treat your bookshelf to a taste of Italy! Order the book here.

Reviews:

• World Literature Today
• The High Window Press
• Tears in the Fence

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