Adrián Astur Álvarez reviewed Allegria by Giuseppe Ungaretti
Review of 'Allegria' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Just an incredibly beautiful collection from one of Italy's most important poets. I love dual language editions of books and Archipelago has managed to present these translations with such generosity. The honor the poet as well as the translator and let me tell you, Geoffrey Brock has done a masterful job here. Some of the works are so slight they are like delicate snowflakes full of nuance and emotional weight and somehow Brock skillfully conveys them in English.
I fell in love with the poems in this book and somehow reading a few times through didn't seem like enough to take them in. I'll need to revisit often, which is no chore. Here's one I keep thinking about:
Memory
When
the night is about to vanish
just before spring
and hardly
anyone's around
The dark color
of grief
gathers over Paris
and on the edge
of a bridge
I consider
…
Just an incredibly beautiful collection from one of Italy's most important poets. I love dual language editions of books and Archipelago has managed to present these translations with such generosity. The honor the poet as well as the translator and let me tell you, Geoffrey Brock has done a masterful job here. Some of the works are so slight they are like delicate snowflakes full of nuance and emotional weight and somehow Brock skillfully conveys them in English.
I fell in love with the poems in this book and somehow reading a few times through didn't seem like enough to take them in. I'll need to revisit often, which is no chore. Here's one I keep thinking about:
Memory
When
the night is about to vanish
just before spring
and hardly
anyone's around
The dark color
of grief
gathers over Paris
and on the edge
of a bridge
I consider
the immense silence
of a slender
girl
And our
maladies
meld
and as if carried off
we stay
Lokvica, September 28, 1916