Journal of Italian Translation

Three Poems by Alfredo De Palchi
Translated by Barbara Carle
Barbara Carle is poet, translator, and critic. She is author of Altre
contingenze/Other Contingencies, a translation of Rodolfo Di Biasio’s
poetic anthology accompanied by a critical essay, and most recently,
New Life, Gradiva, 2006, and Don’t Waste My Beauty/Non guastare la
mia bellezza, Caramanica, 2006. This book won the foreign section of
the National Frascati award in 2000 and was rendered into Italian by
Antonella Anedda and Carle.
Alfredo De Palchi was born in 1926 near Verona. He grew up
with his mother and grandfather and as a teenager was tortured by
the Fascists and the Partisans. He was then imprisoned for six years.
(His prison experiences are recounted in The Scorpion’s Dark Dance,
Xenos Books, 1993) He lived in Paris before coming to the United
States in the late sixties. De Palchi has authored eight books of poetry,
from Sessioni con il mio analista, Mondadori, 1967, to Paradigma,
Hebenon/Mimesis, 2006. (Paradigma contains all of De Palchi’s poetry
from 1947 through 2005) Four of his books were published in
the United States in bilingual editions. De Palchi has resided in New
York City for over thirty years, yet maintains strong ties to his native
Italy. He is editor of the prestigious New York literary journal, Chelsea
and directs Chelsea Editions.
Alfredo De Palchi’s poetic style is unique. It consists of writing
no American poet would undertake. Although his poetic line is drawn
out, his poems do not tell stories. They are always based on a precise
physical or concrete experience, which is then arrested and transformed.
We can say that his style is devoid of sentimentality. De
Palchi is not afraid to confront sex and eroticism with shattering
metaphoric visions. The three poems here translated (all from
Paradigma, Mimesis Hebenon, 2006) are typical of his work from a
thematic and stylistic standpoint, the erotic amorous vein, the transgressive
spirituality, and the ever-present memory of wartime traumas
all merge into distinctly charged poetic entities.