An evening of Giorgio Bassani's Poetry

The English Voice of Giorgio Bassani’s Poetry: The Complete Poems (Agincourt, 2023)

Translated by Roberta Antognini and Peter Robinson

Conversation with the translators; Welcome by Stefano Albertini; Luigi Ballerini: A Word from the Publisher; Paola Bassani: Opening Remarks

Giorgio Bassani’s popularity among anglophone readers was sparked by the 1965 English edition of The Garden of the Finzi Contini, the first novel to familiarize American readers with the Fascist persecution of  Italian Jews. His international reputation was consolidated by Vittorio De Sica’s 1970 Oscar-awarded film, which he publicly repudiated, and by the subsequent translation of most of his novels.

However, an appreciation of Bassani’s poetry has been limited to Italian readers with the occasional exceptions of selected English translations.

The purpose of The Collected Poems, the first authorized English translation of Bassani’s poetic oeuvre, is to introduce readers to another aspect of his work and to the diverse styles he used at different stages in life. Bassani’s rhythm, versification, and sound choices shed light on the poetic dimension of his novels and on the ways he initially conceived the powerful atmospheres for which they are known. The publication of this volume propels readers and scholars, into his life-long poetic practice.

Composed during and soon after the Second World War, the early poems retell the experience of persecution of Ferrara Jews, including the author’s arrest and imprisonment for anti-fascist activities. Their compactly rhymed verses contain the kernel of many situations he then explored in his fiction. The later poems, unrhymed, expansive free verse, all written after his last novel, revisit the life and career of an established man of letters.

In bringing together these different lyrical seasons, this volume shows how Bassani didn’t simply transitioned from a style modeled after the Italian poetic tradition to one freed from formal constraints; rather, he invites readers to understand the interdependence of different ways to compose verses. Bassani’s poetry compels us to open ourselves to a full range of artistic possibilities and carry them forward as both readers and writers.

Giorgio Bassani was born in Ferrara in Emilia Romagna, Italy, in 1916 and died in Rome in 2000.

The Collected Poems of Giorgio Bassani is available now both in paper and ebook form, through Small Press Distribution, Amazon, and Agincourt Press. For more information please visit www.agincourtbooks.com