Il Mio Bambino
| Author | Menotti Lerro |
|---|---|
| Original title | Il mio bambino |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Published | Genesi |
| Pages | 88 |
| ISBN | 9788874142576 |
Will you still have a badly-shaved beard
and crooked nails bitten off in the heaven
for the wise?
There, dad, my hands will not be there to hold
your forehead and your thoughts when you
wake up, prey to monsters, in the night.
Will you remember my dark eyes among
those bright crowns and that funny name
you gave me when I was a babe in arms?
Will you efface from your mind the time
when I locked you in a toilet
(forgive me)
when you shouted and cried and how,
in the light, you held me closely,
bursting into a horrific laughter of joy,
to be in my arms still: I was afraid
of not being able to see you anymore,
you said running towards me.
Will you remember, dad, the nights spent
by the fireplace repeating “Spigolatrice
di Sapri” and the story of your imprisonment?
These were the only obsessions
of yours that I would tolerate,
poems learnt during childhood,
now you think you are grown up
yet you play at smoothing
the rough edges off chairs
and making the flint of a lighter
spark in the crest of a flame.
Dad, when I will remember the present
moment in order to know what really
happened, will you still be my child?
Original text in: Il mio bambino, Genesi (2010)
Il mio bambino (My Child) is a book of poems by Menotti Lerro. It was published by Genesi in 2010.
In this book he deals with the problems raised by his father who “with the time and with continuous health problems has became more and more my son, my child”. As Andrew Mangham pointed out "The book continues a Lerroean tradition of looking closely at the author’s relationship with his father and allowing that bond to influence the shape and texture of his work."[1]
Critical Responses
- "There is a kind of transcendence in Lerro’s poems from which he views the world, a spirituality in which he is able to sublimate this land dominated by evil and death, even though evil and death have won the game. This wounded angel, who at times asks poetry for more than it can give, fights against life and death, offering us a sad and sublime poetry." Roberto Carifi[2]
- "Compared to those verses that are not much older than this one, My Child reinforces the sensation that you are an author dedicated to building a path of wisdom." Giuseppe Lupo[3]
- "Lerro’s poetry is, therefore, prophetic and autumnal. He is clever in knowing that poetry is useless but also sensitive to the perception that it remains a superfluous good, a kind that one cannot live without." Francesco D'Episcopo[4]
- "Lerro's Il Mio Bambino is a text rich in poetic vigour and explorations of selfhood. Borne from a complex notion of love between parent and child, the poems in this collection shine with the colours of love and belonging, and mourn with the shades of melancholy and heartbreak." Andrew Mangham[5]
External links
- Il mio bambino - Publisher official page:
- Giorgio Bàrberi Squarotti's comment
- Maria Rita Parsi's comment
- Copac (English Libraries)
References
- ↑ Andrew Mangham, The Poetry of Menotti Lerro (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), p.xiv
- ↑ Andrew Mangham, The Poetry of Menotti Lerro (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011).
- ↑ Andrew Mangham, The Poetry of Menotti Lerro (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011).
- ↑ Andrew Mangham, The Poetry of Menotti Lerro (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011).
- ↑ http://www.genesi.org/news-note-ai-libri-di-menotti-lerro-commento-di-andrew-mangham-364.html