POEMS FROM
GIACOMO LEOPARDI
Translated and Introduced by
JOHN HEATH-STUBBS
- London/New York: John Lehman/New Directions. 1946.
- 71 pages. Complete. 8½ x
5¼ inches.
- First Edition, stated. First American with inked
"New Directions, New York" on title page.
-
- The majority of these translations make their
first appearance in print in this edition. Illustrated with a portrait
of Leopardi.
-
- Rebound ex-library copy with the usual pocket, withdrawn stamps, etc.
Spine is partially detached but still intact. The book is
clean with no underlining or notes.
Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco
di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (June 29, 1798 – June 14, 1837) was an
Italian poet, essayist, philosopher, and philologist.
Giacomo Leopardi
was born in Recanati, in the Marche, at the time ruled by the papacy, of a local
noble family. His father was the count Monaldo Leopardi and his mother was the
marquise Adelaide Antici Mattei. Leopardi's father was a good-hearted man, fond
of literature but weak and reactionary, who remained bound to antiquated ideas
and prejudices; his mother was a cold and authoritarian woman, obsessed over
rebuilding the family's financial fortunes which had been destroyed by Monaldo's
gambling addiction. At home, a rigorous discipline of religion and savings
reigned supreme. Giacomo's childhood, which he passed with his younger brother
Carlo Orazio and sister Paolina, left its mark on the poet, who recorded his
experiences in the poem Le Ricordanze.
Leopardi, following a family tradition, began his studies under the
tutelage of two priests, but his innate thirst for knowledge found its
satisfaction primarily in his father's extraordinary library. Initially guided
by Father Sebastiano Sanchini, Leopardi quickly liberated himself by immersing
his mind in vast and profound reading. He committed himself so deeply to his
"mad and most desperate" studies that, within a short time, he had acquired an
extraordinary knowledge of classical and philological culture, but he suffered
from the lack of an open and stimulating formal instruction.
Between the ages of twelve and nineteen, he studied constantly, driven by a need
to learn as much as possible, as well as to escape, at least spiritually, from
the rigid environment of the paternal palazzo. His continuous study undermined
an already fragile physical constitution, and his illness denied him even
youth's simplest pleasures.
In 1817 Pietro Giordani, a classicist, arrived at the Leopardi
estate. Giacomo became his lifelong friend and he derived from this friendship a
sense of hope for the future. Meanwhile, his life at Recanati weighed on him
increasingly, to the point that he attempted finally to escape in 1818, but was
caught by his father and returned home. From then on, relations between father
and son continued to deteriorate and Giacomo was constantly monitored in his own
home by the rest of the family. When, in 1822, he was briefly able to stay in
Rome with his uncle, he was deeply disappointed by the atmosphere of corruption
and decadence and by the hypocrisy of the Church. He was extremely impressed by
the tomb of Torquato Tasso, to whom he felt naturally bonded by a common sense
of unhappiness. While Foscolo lived tumultuously between adventures, amorous
relations, and books, Leopardi was barely able to escape from his domestic
oppression. To Leopardi, Rome seemed squalid and modest when compared to the
idealized image that he had created of it while fantasizing over the "sweaty
papers" of the classics. Already before leaving home to establish himself, he
had experienced a burning amorous disillusionment caused by his falling in love
with his cousin Geltrude Cassi. His physical ailments, which continued to
worsen, contributed to the collapse of any last, residual traces of illusions
and hopes. Virtue, Love, Justice and Heroism appeared to be nothing but empty
words to the poet.
In 1824, the bookstore owner Stella called him to Milan, asking him
to write several works, among which a Crestomazia della prosa e della poesia
italiane. During this period, the poet had lived at various points in Milan,
Bologna, Florence and Pisa.
In 1824, at Milan, Leopardi met Alessandro Manzoni, but they did not quite see
things eye to eye. In Florence, he made some solid and lasting friendships, paid
a visit to Giordani and met the poet Pietro Colletta.
In 1828, physically infirm and worn out by work, Leopardi had to refuse the
offer of a professorship at Bonn or Berlin which was made by the ambassador of
Prussia in Rome and, in the same year, he had to abandon his work with Stella
and return to Recanati.
In 1830, Colletta offered him, thanks to the financial contribution
of the "friends of Tuscany", the opportunity to return to Florence. The
subsequent printing of the Canti allowed the poet to live far away from Recanati
until 1832. Later, he moved to Napoli near his friend Antonio Ranieri, where he
hoped to benefit physically from the climate. He died during the cholera
epidemic of 1837. Thanks to Antonio Ranieri's intervention with the authorities,
Leopardi's remains were prevented from being ignominiously tossed into a common
ditch - as the strict hygienic regulations of the time required - and he was
buried in the atrium of the church of San Vitale at Fuorigrotta. In 1939 his
tomb, moved to the Parco Virgiliano, was declared a national monument.
Poems included are: The
Infinite; The Terror by Night; The Evening After the Holy Day; To the Moon; To
Spring; Sappho's Last Song; Chorus of the Dead; To Sylvia; The Solitary Bird;
Memories; The Calm after the Storm; Saturday Evening in the Village; Night Song;
To Himself; On the Portrait of a Beautiful Lady; The Broom, and finally, The
Setting of the Moon.
- From Wikipedia
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