Poetry
Nirien
Not translated into English
Karmenu Vassallo · 1938
Synopsis
The author's first collection of poems, published in 1938, which earned him the name of the poet of fires. In his preface, “Kelmtejn Qabel”, he says he wants to make his poetry a monument more lasting than bronze. The poems are not known in detail; his work, nourished by nature, family and religion, holds suffering to be the human condition.
Context
The collection appeared in 1938 in Malta from G. Muscat. Josette Attard ranks the author among the great figures of Maltese Romanticism after Dun Karm, with a poetry that ranges from the intimate diary to universal philosophical questions, and quotes his formula “Irrid u ma nistax”, I want and I cannot. His poems have been translated into French by Laurent Ropa and into English by A. J. Arberry; Marcel Zammit Marmarà devoted a biography to him in 2012.
Who it is for
For reading the beginnings of a great Maltese poet of the twentieth century, torn between faith and pessimism.
Prizes and reception
The Malta Independent counts him among the pillars of Maltese literature, a philosopher in constant dialogue with God.
Sources for this page 3
The pages consulted to check this page.