Collected poems, 1920-1954

by Eugenio Montale

Paper Book, 1998

Status

Available

Publication

New York, : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998

Description

A strong, idiomatic translation of Italy's greatest modern poet. Eugenio Montale is universally recognized as having brought the great Italian lyric tradition that began with Dante into the twentieth century with unrivaled power and brilliance. Montale is a love poet whose deeply beautiful, individual work confronts the dilemmas of modern history, philosophy, and faith with courage and subtlety; he has been widely translated into English and his work has influenced two generations of American and British poets. Jonathan Galassi's versions of Montale's major works--Ossi di seppia,Le occasioni, andLa bufera e altro--are the clearest and most convincing yet, and his extensive notes discuss in depth the sources and difficulties of this dense, allusive poetry. This book offers English-language readers uniquely informed and readable access to the work of one of the greatest of all modern poets.… (more)

Media reviews

The original stands to these translations as the impossible communion of self and other appeared to the young Montale. Each translation reenacts the yearning the poet expressed, the frustration of another attractive but not quite successful attempt to overcome barriers—in this case that between
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Italian and English. Yet the absence of the definitive version at least allows us to fill our time by trying again. One of the great pleasures of reading a bilingual edition is that you can enjoy the liberty ... of imagining different approximations to the impossible perfect solution.
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Language

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