Love Lessons: Selected Poems of Alda Merini

by Alda Merini, Susan Stewart (Translator)

Overview

Alda Merini is one of Italy's most important, and most beloved, living poets. She has won many of the major national literary prizes and has twice been nominated for the Nobel Prize—by the French Academy in 1996 and by Italian PEN in 2001. In Love Lessons, the distinguished American poet Susan Stewart brings us the largest and most comprehensive selection of Merini's poetry to appear in English. Complete with the original Italian on facing pages, a critical introduction, and explanatory notes, this collection gathers lyrics, meditations, and aphorisms that span fifty years, from Merini's first books of the 1950s to an unpublished poem from 2001. These accessible and moving poems reflect the experiences of a writer who, after beginning her career at the center of Italian Modernist circles when she was a teenager, went silent in her twenties, spending much of the next two decades in mental hospitals, only to reemerge in the 1970s to a full renewal of her gifts, an outpouring of new work, and great renown.

Whether she is working in the briefest, most incisive lyric mode or the complex time schemes of longer meditations, Merini's deep knowledge of classical and Christian myth gives her work a universal, philosophical resonance, revealing what is at heart her tragic sense of life. At the same time, her ironic wit, delight in nature, and affection for her native Milan underlie even her most harrowing poems of suffering. In Stewart's skillful translations readers will discover a true sibyl of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691171265
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/31/2016
Series:	Facing Pages
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	750,474
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Susan Stewart is the author of five books of poems, including Red Rover and Columbarium, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other books include Poetry and the Fate of the Senses, which won the Christian Gauss and Truman Capote prizes for literary criticism, and The Open Studio: Essays on Art and Aesthetics. A former MacArthur Fellow, she is the Annan Professor of English at Princeton and a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments, ix
Translator's Introduction, 1

Acknowledgments, ix
Translator's Introduction, 1

from FIORE DI POESIA: 1951-1997/POETRY'S FLOWER



from La presenza di Orfeo / The Presence of Orpheus (1953)
La presenza di Orfeo/The Presence of Orpheus, 18
Sarò sola?/Will I Be Alone?, 24

from Paura di Dio/Fear of God (1955)
Solo una mano d'angelo/Only an Angel's Hand, 26
Maria Egiziaca (Tintoretto)/Mary of
Egypt (Tintoretto), 28
Pax/Peace, 30

from Nozze romane/Roman Wedding (1955)
Nozze romane/Roman Wedding, 34
La Pietà/The Pietà, 36
La Sibilla Cumana/The Cumaean Sibyl, 38
Quando l'angoscia/When the Anguish, 40

from Tu sei Pietro/You Are Pietro (1961)
from Parte prima/The First Part
Missione di Pietro/Peter's Mission , 42
from Parte seconda/The Second Part
Sogno/Dream, 44
Lirica antica/Antique Lyric, 46
E piú facile ancora/And It Would Be Even Easier, 48

from La Terra Santa/The Holy Land (1984)
Io ero un uccello/As for me, I used to be a bird, 50
Tangenziale dell'ovest/Western Ring Road, 52
La luna s'apre nei giardini del manicomio/The moon
unveils itself in the madhouse gardens, 54
Il mio primo trafugamento di madre/My first mothertheft, 56

from Per Michele Pierri/For Michele Pierri (unpublished until 1991)
Il canto dello sposo/The Song of the Groom, 58
Elegia/Elegy, 60
from La gazza ladra. Venti ritratti/The Thieving Magpie: Twenty Portraits (unpublished until 1991)
Saffo/Sappho, 62
Emily Dickinson/Emily Dickinson, 64
Plath/Plath, 66
Alda Merini/Alda Merini, 68
Il pastrano/The Overcoat, 70
Il grembiule/The Apron, 72
L'ospite/The Guest, 74
from Le satire della Ripa/Ripa's Satires (1983)
Cesare amò Cleopatra/Caesar loved Cleopatra, 76
from La palude di Manganelli o Il monarca del re/Manganelli's Quagmire or The King's Reign (1992)
Otello/Othello, 78
from Titano amori interno/Colossal Inner Loves (1993)
La sottoveste/The Slip, 80
from Ballate non pagate/Penniless ballads (1995)
Tornai allora a quella neve chiara/Then I went back to
that bright snow, 82

from La volpe e il sipario/The Fox and the Curtain (1997)
Che insostenibile chiaroscuro/What unbearable
chiaroscuro, 84

from Aforismi/Aphorisms (1997), 86

from SUPERBA È LA NOTTE/SUPERB IS THE NIGHT (2000)
Sulla noce di un'albicocca/On the pit of an apricot, 92
La cosa piú superba è la notte/The most superb thing is the night, 94
La notte se non è rapida/Night, if it is not swift, 96
C'era una fontana che dava albe/There was a fountain that offered dawns, 98
Naviglio che soccorri la mia carne/Naviglio that succors my fl esh, 100
Ci sono i paradisi artifi ciali/There are artificial paradises, 102
Resti un ardente ulivo/Stay steady burning olive tree, 104
In morte di mia sorella/On the Death of My Sister, 106
O canto della neve chiuso dentro la fossa/Oh song of the snow stuck inside the ditch, 108
Guerra/War, 110
Il Corvo/The Raven, 112
Il grido della morte/The Cry of Death, 116
Unpublished (composed 2001)
Nella terra di Scozia/In the land of Scotland, 122

Notes, 125

What People are Saying About This

Harrison

What we have in Love Lessons is a fantastic selection of poems by Alda Merini, one of Italy's foremost poets, translated into English by Susan Stewart, one of America's foremost poets. As millions of Italian readers already know—and English readers are about to discover for the first time—to open a book by Merini is to discover a poetry of immediate freshness, unlike any other.
— Robert P. Harrison, Rosina Pierotti Professor in Italian Literature, Stanford University

Margaret Brose

Alda Merini is one of the most powerful contemporary female poets writing in Italian. In poems marked by a visionary clarity and lyricism, she sings of the anger and pain of both erotic love and insanity. Susan Stewart's translation is breathtaking. She has accomplished the impossible: a faithful, almost line-by-line translation that is deeply and authentically poetic. The poems speak in their own tongue.
— Margaret Brose, University of California, Santa Cruz

From the Publisher

"What we have in Love Lessons is a fantastic selection of poems by Alda Merini, one of Italy's foremost poets, translated into English by Susan Stewart, one of America's foremost poets. As millions of Italian readers already know—and English readers are about to discover for the first time—to open a book by Merini is to discover a poetry of immediate freshness, unlike any other."—Robert P. Harrison, Rosina Pierotti Professor in Italian Literature, Stanford University

"Alda Merini is one of the most powerful contemporary female poets writing in Italian. In poems marked by a visionary clarity and lyricism, she sings of the anger and pain of both erotic love and insanity. Susan Stewart's translation is breathtaking. She has accomplished the impossible: a faithful, almost line-by-line translation that is deeply and authentically poetic. The poems speak in their own tongue."—Margaret Brose, University of California, Santa Cruz

Editorial Reviews

"[T]hese lovely translations will enable American readers, many of whom will be encountering these poets for the first time, to see what all the fuss is about."—-David Skeel, Books & Culture

"Every now and then, poetry is capable of hitting the mark—more simply, accurately and succinctly—than anything else in the world. It can touch, heel, inspire, enquire, and what's more, understand, during periods of extreme pain, peril and anguish; which, if we really, really think about it, is what accounts for poetry's inexorable validity. So when something great comes along, it certainly lightens the load and brightens the day. It's simply wonderful, and as such, ought to be embraced with both open arms and an open heart. Such is the case with Love Lessons, the selected poems of one of Italy's most beloved and important poets, Alda Merini."—-David Marx, davidmarx.co.uk

"Little translated . . . in the English language, [Alda Merini's] work is intelligently presented with an insightful introduction by American translator and poet Susan Stewart."—-Greta Aart, Cerise Press

"The line-by-line accuracy of Stewart's translations nearly makes of Love Lessons a primer for students of Italian."—-Will Schutt, West Branch

From the Publisher

The line-by-line accuracy of Stewart's translations nearly makes of Love Lessons a primer for students of Italian.

West Branch - Will Schutt

Little translated . . . in the English language, [Alda Merini's] work is intelligently presented with an insightful introduction by American translator and poet Susan Stewart.

Cerise Press - Greta Aart

Every now and then, poetry is capable of hitting the mark—more simply, accurately and succinctly—than anything else in the world. It can touch, heel, inspire, enquire, and what's more, understand, during periods of extreme pain, peril and anguish; which, if we really, really think about it, is what accounts for poetry's inexorable validity. So when something great comes along, it certainly lightens the load and brightens the day. It's simply wonderful, and as such, ought to be embraced with both open arms and an open heart. Such is the case with Love Lessons, the selected poems of one of Italy's most beloved and important poets, Alda Merini.

davidmarx.co.uk - David Marx

[T]hese lovely translations will enable American readers, many of whom will be encountering these poets for the first time, to see what all the fuss is about.

Books & Culture - David Skeel

The line-by-line accuracy of Stewart's translations nearly makes of Love Lessons a primer for students of Italian.
— Will Schutt

West Branch

Little translated . . . in the English language, [Alda Merini's] work is intelligently presented with an insightful introduction by American translator and poet Susan Stewart.
— Greta Aart

Cerise Press

Every now and then, poetry is capable of hitting the mark—more simply, accurately and succinctly—than anything else in the world. It can touch, heel, inspire, enquire, and what's more, understand, during periods of extreme pain, peril and anguish; which, if we really, really think about it, is what accounts for poetry's inexorable validity. So when something great comes along, it certainly lightens the load and brightens the day. It's simply wonderful, and as such, ought to be embraced with both open arms and an open heart. Such is the case with Love Lessons, the selected poems of one of Italy's most beloved and important poets, Alda Merini.
— David Marx

davidmarx.co.uk

[T]hese lovely translations will enable American readers, many of whom will be encountering these poets for the first time, to see what all the fuss is about.
— David Skeel

Books & Culture