This podcast is dedicated to English speakers who would like to know more about Italian Poetry, but don’t speak Italian. You can hear a summary of each poem in English, then the original in Italian, and you can also follow along on our website, where you’ll find resources to help find your way across languages.
https://italianpoetry.it/
episode 26: Per lei, by Giorgio Caproni
Today we read Per lei, by Giorgio Caproni.
Giorgio Caproni’s mother, Anna (or rather Annina, as he fondly calls her), died in 1950, when he was 38. The collection “Il seme del piangere” (The seed of crying), published nine years later, is not only dedicated to her, but puts her at the center as a protagonist.
This poem is both a reflection on Anna’s personality, and a declaration of poetics: his mother was straightforward, honest, clear, simple, and so, in describing her, he wants to use simple language, straightforward rhymes, open sounds.
The resulting composition is technically masterful and at the same time refreshingly light and musical.
The original:
Per lei voglio rime chiare,usuali: in -are.
Rime magari vietate,
ma aperte: ventilate.
Rime coi suoni fini
(di mare) dei suoi orecchini.
O che abbiano, coralline,
le tinte delle sue collanine.
Rime che a distanza
(Annina era cosí schietta)
conservino l’eleganza
povera, ma altrettanto netta.
Rime che non siano labili,
anche se orecchiabili.
Rime non crepuscolari,
ma verdi, elementari.\ The music in this episode is Vivaldi’s Double Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 3 No. 11, played by the Advent Chamber Orchestra with David Parry and Roxana Pavel Goldstein (under creative commons from the Al Goldstein collection).