Carla Billitteri teaches in the English Department of the University of Maine, Orono. She has recently edited, translated and introduced the Italian section of 99 Poets/1999: An International Poetics Symposium, published in Boundary2, Spring 1999. Her other translations of contemporary Italian poetry have appeared in Rif/t; I am a Child: Poetry After Robert Duncan and Bruce Andrews (Buffalo: Tailspin Press, 1995) and Private Arts.
Working Notes
Translator's note by Carla Billitteri
Patrizia Vicinelli (1943-91) joined the predominantly male avant-garde Group '63 at the La Spezia Congress in 1966. She was previously involved in the experimental theatre of Aldo Braibanti and first published her poetry in EX, a magazine of multimedia and experimental arts edited by Emilio Villa.
Published in Italian cutting-edge literary magazines (EX, Quindici, Marcatrè, AlfaBeta), Vicinelli was active in the field of visual poetry and sound poetry. She exhibited her visual poetry at the Finch College Museum New York (1972); Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Torino (1973) and Bologna (1974); Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Tokyo (1976); Biennale di Venezia (1978); Italian Poetry 1960-1980, San Francisco (1982); and Spazio Suono Viareggio (1984). Her albums of poetry collaborations include: à,a.A, Futura and Baobab.
Her books posthumously collected in Opere (1994) include: Altre prose, à,a.A (1967), a mix of sound poetry and phonetic poetry; Non sempre ricordano (1978), an epic poem; Apology of schizoid woman (1979), experimental poetry; and I fondamenti dell'essere, Messmer (1980-1988), a novel.
Vicinelli's poetry challenges the reader with a stunning combination of multisemantic, asyntactical playfulness and witty polyglottism, often presenting a seamless interweaving of five languages (Spanish, English, Italian, French, Hebrew), different Italian regional dialects, street jargons and local idiolects.Vicinelli is bitter, satirical, pervasively political, but also melodramatic, fascinated by the urban mythologies of W. S. Burroughs' junky underworld as well as by the arcane quest for the Holy Grail, and by Greek archetypes and marginal cultures.
Domani Abbe (Tomorrow Abba)
Friday domani abba
abb a do mani yes he said
and he says yes, it was something between inside and you
rather the world and myself and yourself
abba, dors, maintenant,
abba do mani he
said the sculpture ahj,
come m'endorme exquisido, como
iaculatoria, abb a do
mani, yes, sleep now,
what matters the world between me and youc'entra c'en tra
the evangel of languages
idiomes évangéliques elle dit abba do
main no to day after the world
now the world
surrounded in the present ab ba he says
yes como me gusta el mundo says
me deca decame, en nel mundo
abba in and out within and without
(1988)
I Will Not Return
I will not return.
Over the bridges in flames
in the summer
the moon shines
shine
striped narrow shoes
to
be seen on
gelid deserted squares
in the winter their neglect
of time could indicate
a fair beginning
but under this climate sense
its scarcity
I promised
I will never return there.
I go against
and stand up
right against
the furnace abyss
what a hiccup
from singular approaching
to have it
conditioned in the mind
the broken time
the used up time
we are on loan
now.
The solitary night adumbrates
this sound that is already
twentieth century
what are the little pearls doing
adorning
us who sweat
from every pore sadness
what pattern
of relentless spots.
There would be another course
to follow
long difficult impervious
swallowing
to send
down
saliva
bile
morsels
that sometimes happen
they happen sometimes.
Low key notes all of them
abysmal deteriorated
the air is scorching
when it burns you
the bitter sun in black.
Brooches fissures
chaplet
sour the sandal incense rises
every
one stands up
like flowers in line
in their ascension the height
in extending
in unfolding.
�
in- sack
����������� ����������� in-side
����������������������� ����������� ����������� in-stride
����������������������� ����������������������� ����������������������� ����������� in-volved
����������������������� ����������������������� ����������� ����������� "I AM INTERPENETRATED"
logique de la mame
����������������������� ����������������������� ����������� ����������� (la mame n'a pas de logique)
let's have an in-terview
come on,
let's suck up this
����������������������� ����������������������� ����������� ����������� panful of b�chamel
disruptive in-segunto
daundi������ ����������������������� ����������� ����������� RUMP, o, o, o
JUM���������������������� (P) o, o, o,
STRI��� ����������� ����������� kes.
��=������������������� linkage with the superior)
�������������������
������������������� e�����
������������� g������ t���
������� ���n������������ e
������� i������������������� r
���� t������������������������ n
�� n����������������������������� i�������������������������������������������������� IN-terview
�a���������������������������������� t��������������������������������� AH������������ OH������ AAHH
p�������������������������������������� y��������������
����������������������
����������������������� ��
����������� ����������� evv������������������������� porr������������������������� stronn
����������������������� ����������������������� ����������������������� ����������� ����������� ecstasy
����������������������� ����������������������� ����������������������� ����������� IT COMES SUDDENLY
����������������������� ����������������������� ����������������������� ����������������������� ���������������� �in its dream
� cul de sac.
(1986)