EMILIO VILLA the Selected Poetry of Emilio Villa
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While Emilio Villa (1914–2003) was referred to as Zeus because of his greatness and Rabelais because of his mental voracity, for decades his work remained in oblivion, only recently surfacing to reveal him to be one of the most formidable VILLAEMILIO figures of the Italian Novecento, if not of world culture. His marginalization was in part self-inflicted, due to his sibylline nature if not to his great erudition, which gave rise to a poetics so unconventional that few knew what to make of it: a biblicist who composed experimental verse in over ten different languages, including tongues from Milanese dialect and Italian to French, Portuguese, ancient Greek, & even Sumerian and Akkadian. As Andrea Zanzotto declared, “From the very beginning, Villa was so advanced that, even today, his initial writings or graphemes appear ahead of the times and the future, suspended between a polymorphous sixth sense and pure non-sense.” In merging his background as a scholar, translator, & philologist of ancient lan- guages with his conception of poetics, Villa creates the sensation that, when PoetryofVilla The Selected Emilio reading his work, we are coming into contact with language at its origins, spoken as if for the first time, with endless possibilities. Whether penning verse, translating Homer’s Odyssey, or writing on contemporary or primordial art, Villa engages in a paleoization of the present and a modernization of the past, wherein history is abolished and interpretation suspended, leaving room only for the purely generative linguistic act, one as potent today as it was eons ago. This volume of Villa’s multilingual poetry ranges across his entire writing life and also includes selections from his translation of the Bible, his writings on ancient & modern art, and his visual poetry. Presented in English for the very first time,The Selected Poetry of Emilio Villa also contains material that is rare even to Italian readers. In adhering to the original notion of poetry as making, Villa acts as the poet-faber in tandem with his readers, creating une niche dans un niche for them to enter and create within, as if language itself were an eternal & infinite void in which creation remains an ever possible and continuously new event. “Dominic Siracusa is a courageous & energetic translator. His dynamism is essential for the effective translation of Emilio Villa’s complex poems that are always in motion, and for faithfully reproducing the consistent thread of thought running through the texts. As Polonius famously surmised, ‘Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.’ Siracusa nimbly follows the textual slippings and slidings from erudite quotes through folksy references to Italian-Milanese colloquialisms to lyric outbursts, thereby bringing to English a fascinating blend of Italian experimental poetry.” — Paolo Valesio isbn 978–1–9406250–5–8 www.contramundum.net Encomiums Thanks & awe for your Villadrome, which helped us to climb the heights of Sicilian poetry. — Marcel Duchamp From the very beginning , Villa was so advanced that, even to- day, his initial writings or graphemes appear ahead of the times and even the future, suspended between a polymorphous sixth sense and pure non-sense. — Andrea Zanzotto Emilio Villa was the greatest Italian poet of the forties, never mind Montale. — Nanni Balestrini I was awestruck by this blasphemous character who didn’t care about the gods, let alone men. — Patrizia Vicinelli As the universe expands and its galaxies grow further apart with a speed proportionate to their respective distances, so does the linguistic universe of Emilio Villa. — Adriano Spatola I called him Zeus (to always associate him with greatness, as well as his translation of the Odyssey) and Rabelais (for the excesses, his physical and mental voracity for gigantic meals, dictionaries, and all languages). — Giulia Niccolai At different times there is Villa the archæologist, the translator, and even the scenographer skilled in historical reproduction (for John Huston’s film The Bible), apart from Villa the poet & writer, the tireless experimentalist, the clandestine promoter of ‘poetic events,’ and the underground initiator of mysteries. — Luciano Caruso & Stelio Maria Martini The Selected Poetry of Other Works by Emilio Villa forthcoming from Contra Mundum Selected Writings The Hebrew Bible, tr. by Emilio Villa The Selected Poetry of Translated with an Introduction by Dominic Siracusa The Selected Poetry of Emilio Villa Library of Congress © 2014 by Dominic Siracusa; Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Introduction © 2014 by Villa, Emilio, 1914–2003 Dominic Siracusa. [ The Selected Poetry of All originals © Emilio Villa Emilio Villa. English. French. Estate, California, 2014. Greek. Italian. Latin. Milanese. All Rights Reserved by & Portuguese. Provencal.] Controlled through Francesco The Selected Poetry of Emilio & Stefania Villa. Villa / Emilio Villa Typesetting © 2014 by Alessandro Segalini .—ıst Contra Mundum Press First Contra Mundum Press Edition edition 2014. 782 pp., 6x 9 in. All Rights Reserved under isbn 9781940625058 International & Pan-American Copyright Conventions. I. Villa, Emilio. No part of this book may be II. Title. reproduced in any form or by III. Siracusa, Dominic. any electronic means, including IV. Translation. information storage and retrieval V. Siracusa, Dominic. systems, without permission in VI. Introduction. writing from the publisher, VII. Segalini, Alessandro. except by a reviewer who may VIII. Typesetting. quote brief passages in a review. 2014939147 Research for this book was aided by a fellowship from the Raiziss /de Palchi Translation Awards Fund of The New York Community Trust. Table of Contents 0 “Emilio Villa: Biblicist, Art Critic, Experimental Poet…” by Dominic Siracusa 3 From Adolescenza ( Adolescence, 1934 ) Poesia mia ( My Poetry ) Parole silenziose ( Silent Words ) Specchio di pini sul lago ( Pines’ Mirror on the Lake ) Voci del vento ( The Wind’s Voices ) Vita agreste ( Rural Life ) Vita ( Life ) Alla morte ( For Death ) Paese medioevale ( Medieval Town ) 23 Prendi la rocca e il fuso e andiamo in California ( Grab the Distaff and Spindle and Let’s Go to California, 1941 ) 29 Sì, ma lentamente ( Yes, but Slowly, 1941 ) 57 From Oramai ( By Now, 1947 ) Cosa c’è di nuovo ( What’s New, 1944) Pezzo 1941 ( 1941 Piece, 1942) Però prima del vento ( But Before the Wind ) Semper pauperes, 1941 Buonasera ( Good Evening , 1939) Gli argomenti ( Arguments, 1942) Di volt, una lüsnada ( A volte un lampo, Sometimes a Flash ) Natus de muliere, brevi vivens Per miracolo ( A Miracle, 1940) Ormai ( By Now, 1939) 105 E ma dopo ( Yeah but After, 1950 ) E ma dopo ( Yeah but After ) Luogo e impulso ( Place and Impulse ) Astronomia ( Astronomy ) Senza Armonia ( Without Harmony ) Linguistica ( Linguistics ) Geografia ( Geography ) Le parole ( Words ) Dinamica accanita ( Dogged Dynamic ) Contenuto figurativo ( Figurative Content ) 161 17 variazioni su temi proposti per una pura ideologia fonetica ( 17 Variations on Themes Proposed for a Pure Phonetic Ideology, 1955 ) 255 3 ideologie da piazza del popolo / senza l’imprimatur (3 Ideologies from Piazza del Popolo / Without the Imprimatur, 1958 ) Imprimatur antiquate sonorità cristiane… ( antiquated christian resonances… ) translatio 295 comizio millenovecentocinquanta3 ( nineteen-fifty3 rally, 1959 ) 321 From Heurarium ( 1961 ) apoklypse hyménée liturg allusion et ultimatum à la corrrrée the cuban gong mata–borrão para flavio motta 337 Options. 17 eschatological madrigals captured by a sweetromatic cybernetogamic vampire, by villadrome ( 1968 ) 356 SUB BREGME ( 1972 ) 362 .ΤΑ ΘHBHΙΣΙ ΤEIΧH ( le mûra di t; éb; é, ¶ the wâlls of th; éb; és, 1981 ) 397 Untitled, from the poetry anthology Il principio della parola ( The Word’s Principle, 1988 ) 403 From Zodiaco ( Zodiac, 2000 ) Il sogno bruciato di Hekuba ( The Burnt Dream of Hekuba, 1975 ) Geolatrica ( Geolatric, 1982 ) Geolatria ( Geolatry, circa 1980 ) Zodiac ( circa 1980 ) È una faccenda visuale ( It’s a Visual Matter, 1982 ) Euonirico transfer ( Euoneiric transfer, 1985 ) Trou Trou ( sensuel ) Trou Trou 438 From Verboracula ( 1981 ) OS APERIAT CORPUS Æ[S]TATIS XIX ( 1933 ) IN HELICONE ( 1934 ) PYTHICA VANA THEATRULUM PYTHICA ACIES DÆMONOKRATEIA PENSILINA ( 1932 ) DIVINUM SCELUS ( 1929 ) DEMETRA DEMENS NARKYSS PYTHICA RES NE OPERIETUR OPUS OPERUM OMNE GENESIS LETO SALTAFOSSUM SALTAFOSSUM ARTEMIS PETALUS VU HERCULES HERMES PROBLEMA A 474 Geometria Reformata ( Reformed Geometry, 1990 ) 501 From 12 Sibyllæ ( 1995 ) Sibylla ( cumana ) ( Cumaean ) Sibylla ( foedus, foetus ) Sibylla ( nativitatis ) Sibylla ( euphemia ) Sibylla ( Kallas ) Sybilla protula Sybilla loquitur Sibylla ( labia ) Sibylla ( Vedova Vidua in Dividua ) ( Widow Vidua in Dividual ) Sibylla ( trifida ) ( trifid ) Sibylla ndrangheta 532 Letania per Carmelo Bene ( Litany for Carmelo Bene, 1996 ) 551 Unpublished Poems Mottos Homily tactile to tickle tongue 579 Poesia è ( Poetry is, circa 1989 ) 593 Prima o poi ( Sooner or Later ) 599 Other Writings Translation of Genesis: L’Impresa del Rettile e L’Espulsione ( The Reptile’s Endeavor and The Expulsion ) Essay on Primordial Man: Noi e la preistoria: a proposito di una scoperta recente ( Prehistory and Us: Regarding a Recent Discovery, 1954 ) Art Criticism: Lucio Fontana ( 1961 ); A Postcard ( 1963 ); Marcel Duchamp ( 1968 ) Alphabetum cœleste ( 1974 ) 660 Biography 666 Bibliography of Works by Emilio Villa Introduction Emilio Villa : Biblicist, Art Critic, Experimental Poet… Similar to the journey ventured