Travel diary of an American/Vittorio Bodini, voice of our South

Vittorio Bodini is one of the greatest figures of Italian literature of the 20th Century and this year marks the centennial of his birth. The lengthy program of commemorative events began in January and is testimony to his influence: exhibits, conferences, book presentations, and publications have spanned the country from Torino to Rome, and will continue on to Milano and Florence. But this weekend the series reaches its climax, poignantly in Lecce: the first edition of the International literary prize “Vittorio Bodini”. The event pays tribute to the poet and his past, but most importantly, the award is just a starting point for the future.



In the magical setting of Lecce’s Teatro Romano, for lovers of poetry and music, tomorrow evening promises to echo the elegance of Bodini’s prose and verse. In the backdrop of the land which inspired his book, La Luna dei Borboni, the great intellectual will be remembered by awarding two distinguished Italian authors, in honor of his two loves, poetry and translation. Valerio Magrelli, for his collection of poetry “Il sangue amaro,” and Matteo Colombo, author and translator for his new translation of the American classic, “A Catcher in the Rye,” by J. D. Salinger. Both works are published by Einaudi. Magrelli, poet, giornalist, and translator, is a well-known literary figure in Italy, while Colombo has given voice in Italian to some of the most influential contemporary American novelists of our time: Don Delillo, Dave Eggers, David Foster Wallace, Michael Chabon, Chuck Palahniuk, David Sedaris, and Jennifer Egan.



The award, promoted by the “Centro Studi Vittorio Bodini” and financially supported by the “Assessorato al Mediterraneo, Cultura e Turismo della Regione Puglia”, is presided over by a highly qualified and international jury. Its president, Prof.ssa Anna Dolfi, from the University of Florence, oversees the 10 jurists of experts who hail not only from great academic insititutions across Italy and Europe (Oxford, London, Paris, Alicante), but also from the literary and publishing world.



But most importantly, as noted by Valentina Bodini, the poet’s daughter, honorary president of the jury and president of the center, the award is part of an effort to expand even further the poet’s legacy, placing him next to his contemporaries within the anthologies of 20th Century Italian literature, while continuing to honor his love for Salento, and the promotion of young artists today.



Bodini was an avid supporter of the arts and in his lifetime he surrounded himself with artists, says his daughter. It was only natural that the award night was also a tribute to his passion and dedication, creating an entertaining and extraordinary evening making accessible the often hermetically closed world of poetry to a larger public. Paolo Perrone, Lecce’s mayor, also remembers the poet, declaring that the people of Salento and their sense of belonging to Europe is also thanks to the contributions of the often forgotten but great Vittorio Bodini. During the event, Perrone is also to read verses of the poet.



Tomorrow night’s show will be a harmonious dance between music and verse. Pianist Andrea Padova, jazz artists Raffaele Casarano and William Greco along with Stefano Schiattone will alternate readings by actors Dario Oppido, Carla Guido, and Antonio Minelli.



In the profound and penetrating words of the jury’s president: «the two awarded authors… reading a few lines from their books, will testify before the public what it means to write, to translate, reminding us with their own presence the challenge that still today in this distracted and indifferent world literature and poetry continue to represent».



In fact but unfortunately, Bodini is little known beyond academic and literary circles, yet his works are too numerous to list. As a translator, he is most known for his interpretation in Italian of Federico Garcìa Lorca’s Teatro and Don Chisciotte by Cervantes, (still unanimously recognised as the best translation of the great Spanish classic). But beyond his giving voice to these timeless authors, Bodini was a highly sensitive poet and naturally versatile talent.



His literary activity began early. At the age of 18 he became part of the Italian Futurist movement and founded in his own hometown, Futurblocco leccese, publishing all the while poetry and prose. During his university years in Florence, he was part of the literary circle “Giubbe Rosse” and encouraged by the poet Eugenio Montale he published his verse and a short story in one of the most influential literary magazines of the time, “Letteratura”.



Once back in Lecce, Bodini edited the third page of the weekly, “Vedetta Mediterranea” with Oreste Macrì, giving voice to the up and coming rise of the hermetic movement of poetry from which he would later detract. But the most significant turn of events came after a short stay in Rome, when Bodini won a research scholarship at the Italian Institute in Madrid. Only after he returned from Spain did his Salento become the central theme of his writing, and venue of his efforts in the literary, cultural and civic realms.



For Bodini the Italian South was more than just a geographical position. For him, his Baroque Lecce represented the human condition, theme vastly explored by poets since the beginning of literature’s birth. Having initially refused his southern roots, Bodini later delved deep within the collective unconscious of his fellow people that revealed to the poet the hidden spirit of his Salento. Then was he most prolific, and wrote his most moving verses.



“Cordova is a sweet storm / of white green and black and in those chords / of chalk and lemons and fresh gates / I find my South but with a more open conscience/ with a more open sadness and more meaning”. Only upon rediscovering his homeland, “where Europe ends”, and by searching within its history, art, customs and traditions, did Bodini become the great poet and translator for which he is known today. It is only natural that Lecce would pay tribute to their poet promoting his legacy for the sake of its future generations.