Poetry
Pianissimo
Not translated into English
Camillo Sbarbaro · 1914
Synopsis
A collection conceived as a single poem, spoken in a low voice. The speaker walks through the city, among the streets and the people, and finds in himself an emptiness of feeling, a kind of death of the soul: the world falls silent, and so does he. Sometimes a moment of truth awakens, then goes out. Without cry or rhetoric, the book describes a man on the edge of an equilibrium that is always under threat.
Context
The collection appeared in Florence in 1914, from the publishing house of the review La Voce, and established the author's reputation. In it he marked a reaction against decadentism, through a muted tone free of rhetoric. In French, Jean-Baptiste Para sees in it “mutisme du monde, mutisme de l'âme, aridité et angoisse”; the book appeared in 1991 from Clémence Hiver, with another collection by the author, under the title “Pianissimo : rémanences”.
Who it is for
A short collection in bare language, best read in one sitting, like a single long poem.
Prizes and reception
According to Marsilio, the book combines the legacy of Baudelaire with that of Leopardi in a singular reading of the crisis of modern man.
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