Disaffections: Complete Poems 1930-1950 (English and Italian Edition) [Paperback]

Cesare Pavese (Author), Geoffrey Brock (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2002

Cesare Pavese was one of Italy’s great post-war writers. His poetry was revolutionary—both artistically and politically—rejecting the verbal and philosophical constraints of tradition and utilizing direct, colloquial language. His subjects were peasants, hobos, and prostitutes, and this bilingual volume includes all the poetry Pavese ever published, including work originally deleted by Fascist censors. A landmark volume.

Cesare Pavese (1908-50) was a novelist, poet, and translator and a major literary figure in post-war Italy. He brought American influence to Italian literature through his translations. Pavese’s flight from the Fascists and subsequent confinement were reflected in his writings, which dealt with social struggle and revealed his sympathy for the oppressed. He committed suicide at the height of his literary powers.

A Kage-an Series Book

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Born in 1908, Pavese completed a Ph.D. thesis on Walt Whitman and became one of Italy's leading translators of American writing before committing suicide in 1950. This bilingual edition begins with the brilliant Work's Tiring, a 1936 book written while jailed for "anti-fascist activities," and ends with a poem written in English: "Some one has died/ long time ago-/ some one who tried/ but didn't know."
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Brock has captured Pavese's unique timbre of sound, clarity of vision, the flesh of a poetic life. -- The Virginia Quarterly Review, Autumn 2003

Brock is scrupulously faithful to the Italian, consistently expressing in English the authentic sense and spirit of Pavese's poems. -- The Literary Review, Summer 2003

Brock's fine new translation [is the first to carry] both the colloquialness of [Pavese's] language and [its] haunting rhythms. -- Los Angeles Times, September 14, 2003

Brock's highly crafted translation much improves on William Arrowsmith's version [and] bristles with intelligent decisions. -- The Yale Review, January 2004

[Brock’s Pavese] is the best, and the most ample, in English to date. -- The Guardian (UK), October 2, 2004

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 372 pages
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English, Italian
• ISBN-10: 1556591748
• ISBN-13: 978-1556591747
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, December 10, 2002

By 

LGD (ASU) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Disaffections: Complete Poems 1930-1950 (English and Italian Edition) (Paperback)

As a poet myself, reading Pavese and working with translations from the Italian have helped my writing immensely. I was introduced to Pavese by my creative writing instructor early in my writing and have returned to him ever since. Narrative poetry at its eloquent and poignant best that finds a quiet, understated way of exploring and explaining the human condition.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'The act of poetry is an absolute will to see clearly' - Pavese, November 16, 2006

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Disaffections: Complete Poems 1930-1950 (English and Italian Edition) (Paperback)

Italian poet Cesare Pavese, born 1908, died by suicide 1950, not only contributed to the world's poetry, but he also served as a novelist and a translator of American works into Italian. It is thus fitting that this translation of his poems written from 1930 to 1950 and including works censored by the Fascists as well as poems discovered after his death should be the work of the brilliant translator and annotator Geoffrey Brock.

Pavese's poems may not have altered the manner in which poetry was written in his time, but his subjects are simply the men and women of his day who struggled between political philosophies, between love of leisure and need for work, between the glorification of the countryside and the drama of the cities, and between the solitary life and the desperate need for pairing. His words have a beauty of rhythm that only a fine translator could capture: Brock does this so well.

Even the air insists that that day won't return.
The deserted window drinks in the cold
and the sky. It's useless to open one's throat
to breathe the old way, as anyone knows
who's left stunned but alive. It's finished, the night
of dreams and regrets. But that day won't return.'

Enter Pavese's world and share it with those who love the finest of poetry. This is a wondrous volume of magnificent works. Grady Harp, November 06

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Translation!, December 12, 2002

By 

Peter Campion (Rome, Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Disaffections: Complete Poems 1930-1950 (English and Italian Edition) (Paperback)

Geoff Brock's translation is idiomatic, rhythmical, and utterly gorgeous. The poems actually seem to rise from the page; since this translator knows how convey Pavese's plain-speech eloquence, and his painterly crispness. It helps to have a real poet as a translator; Brock's own impressive poems appear in numerous journals. And I hope that this book will get publishing...in gear, and deliver us a collection of Brock's own work real soon.