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Journal of Italian Translation
diary of an absolutely associative nature” (125). This description
of poetry comes in the appendix of the book in which appears
Raymond Petrillo’s translation of Cecchetti’s essay, “Sullo scriver
poesia in terra straniera.” No doubt this essay provides insight
into a poetry which seems to be written in the vastness of solitude,
as if Leopardi were wandering a desert in the Southwest United
States.
In that sense, Cecchetti’s poetry seems unlike the rest of his
co-nationals who write as Italians or Italians living in America,
though not necessarily Italian Americans. I refer to such names as
Luigi Fontanella, Elisa Biagini, Paolo Valesio, Ernesto Livorni,
Alessandro Carrera, Eugenia Paulicelli, Victoria Surliuga, et al.
The poetry of Giose Rimanelli comes to mind as an exception to
this. Rimanelli and Cecchetti, perhaps owing to their generational
closeness, share a greater affinity. What permeates Cecchetti’s
poetry is the sense of exile, which Roberta L. Payne acknowledges
as a general theme of the whole book, and in this sense he belongs
to the group of poets who write on either side of the Atlantic,
seeking a poetic voice that simultaneously goes back to the Italian
roots while forging new contexts in the United States. For example,
even as Cecchetti writes removed from his Italy, he uses toscanismi
like: “sbrendoli,” “mota,” “paduli,” and “ananasso.” In fact the
“paduli” (swamps) of his poem, “In viaggio” (“En route”), are, in
Cecchetti’s own words (116), both the swamps of Fucecchio (Florence)
and those of the South of the United States. Thus, we too
become nomadic as we seek the geographical places in which we
can apply his metaphors and descriptions, wondering whether
Cecchetti was thinking of one patria or another; or both. The cover
offers a giant cactus in the desert with a setting sun – clearly, not
Italian, much less Tuscan. Yet, by the end of the book, Fucecchio
and Foggia alike are juxtaposed and experienced in that same context
of the desert along with San Francisco, New Orleans, Texas,
Lake Superior and other places. His coinciding departure with
arrival and beginning with end, resemble the thematics of the
Bertolucci from Capanna indiana, and this is not to speak of the
linguistic similarities between the two collections. (Dare I go as far
as finding a resemblance with some of Giampiero Neri’s Teatro
naturale or his Dallo stesso luogo?)
Within the greater context of exile there is also the journeying
that comes full circle, that never brings the poet anywhere. Along
with this aspect, there is also encapsulation seen in the figures of