IN THE PAPERS

First of all, two more images - which I have stolen from Antonio's blog - from last Saturday night's presentation of the poetry book: in the first, Antonio [right] is examining his Caffè Letterario Salvatore Quasimodo award. Prof. Domenico Pisana, the President of the literary association, is on the left. In the second photo Prof.ssa Ausilia Pluchino accompanies the young soprano Chiara Notarnicola, who sang beautifully for us. I'm sure that we will all be hearing more of Chiara, for she is surely an opera star in the making.

Below is the best reproduction I could manage of an article which appeared in Il Giornale di Sicilia yesterday, along with my translation:

Last week's "Literary Saturday" at the Palazzo della Cultura was devoted to the Modican poet Antonio Lonardo. Il Profumo del Pensiero, his third collection, was presented in its Italian-English edition. The event was chaired by the President of the Caffè Letterario, Domenico Pisana, with an introduction to the poetry by Prof. Uccio Di Maggio, a teacher of English Language and Literature at Modica's Liceo Scientifico "Galileo". Di Maggio, in addition to emphasising the profound nature of Lonardo's poetry, which embraces various themes in a learned linguistic style, spoke about the contribution of Prof.ssa Susan Clarke, who wrote the Preface and, importantly, about Patricia Eggleton, who had brilliantly translated the 23 poems in the collection. In pointing out the difficulties of translation in general, Di Maggio showed how Patricia Eggleton's translation had overcome all the obstacles, whilst respecting Lonardo's strong idiom and remaining faithful to the conceptuality of his thought and poetic nature of the text.

As Antonio Daniele comments on the dust jacket,

"The explosive charge of creation continues in Lonardo's work. It is the poetry of a builder of words, as he likes to define himself - a scholar's words which have been sought, then refined and made holy by exalting them in garments now from the Renaissance, now Baroque in the richness of the soul and the optimism expressed in his thought."

During the course of the evening, the poems were read in English by Patricia Eggleton and in Italian by the Modican actor Giorgio Sparacino. Ausilia Pluchino provided piano accompaniment and the young soprano Chiara Notarnicola sang.

Below is a copy of an article which appeared in La Sicilia yesterday, also with my translation:

«Il profumo del pensiero» di Lonardo
Al Palacultura la presentazione dell’ultima
fatica letteraria che racchiude le liriche
già pubblicate

"Il profumo del pensiero". È l’ultima fatica
letteraria di Antonio Lonardo, già
docente dell’Itc ’Archimede’, presentata
durante lo scorso Sabato letterario al
Palazzo della Cultura. L’opera, che racchiude
le liriche già pubblicate dal poeta
originario di Taurasi, in provincia di
Avellino, e modicano d’adozione, contiene
una poesia inedita dedicata al fratello
Celestino e si presenta al pubblico
in una nuova veste poliglotta. Grazie
infatti alla collaborazione con la prof.ssa
Patrice Egleton, madrelingua inglese, le
poesie sono state tradotte in inglese, e
l’opera presenta una doppia prefazione
nelle due lingue a cura della prof.ssa
Susan Clark, anch’ella madrelingua inglese.
Fedele alla mission del ’poeta’,
che per Lonardo è essere "costruttore di
parole", nella sua lirica "le parole non
trasmettono esclusivamente il proprio
valore semantico - ha sottolineato il
prof. Uccio di Maggio, docente di lingua
inglese al Liceo Scientifico ’Galilei’ di
Modica, che ha curato la presentazione
del libro durante l’incontro culturale -
bensì quello sonoro. E l’equilibrio sonoro/
fonico viene ricercato anche nella
traduzione, che pondera e ricerca i sinonimi
più giusti, per dare al lettore la
reale dimensione emotiva dell’opera".
Della poesia di Lonardo, Domenico Pisana,
presidente del Caffè letterario Quasimodo
di Modica, esalta la forza emotiva.
"Le parole si arricchiscono di immagini,
simboli, accostamenti analogici,
con la risultanza di una poesia che è
sublime gioco/effetto fonico della parola
ricercata ma non barocca". "La poesia
di Lonardo - ha proseguito Di Maggio -
risulta essere classica, ma anche moderna
al contempo, in quanto presenta le figure
retoriche note alla tradizione, e
pure dei neologismi, precisamente degli
anglicismi". La serata dedicata a Lonardo,
che di recente si è aggiudicato il
terzo posto al concorso nazionale di
poesia "Premio Axa 2009" con la lirica
inedita "Luoghi", è proseguita con la
lettura delle liriche da parte dell’attore
Giorgio Sparacino, e della prof.ssa Egleton,
sullo sfondo delle note del pianoforte
della prof.ssa Ausilia Pluchino.

- VALENTINA RAFFA

Il Profumo del Pensiero by Lonardo
Launch of his latest work,
a selection of previously published poems,
at the Palazzo della Cultura

Il Profumo del Pensiero is the latest work by Antonio Lonardo, formerly a teacher at the ITC Archimede. The book was launched last Saturday at the Palazzo della Cultura. The polyglot edition contains a selection of previously published poems by Lonardo, who was born in Taurasi [Avellino] and is Modican by adoption, as well as a previously unpublished poem dedicated to his brother Celestino.

Thanks to the collaboration of Prof.ssa Patricia Eggleton, whose mother tongue is English, the poems have been translated into English and the edition contains a "double preface" in both languages by Prof.ssa Susan Clarke, who is also a native English speaker.

Lonardo is faithful to the poet's mission, which is, for him, to be a "builder of words"; in his poetry "words do not just communicate their semantic import, but also their resonant impact", said Prof Uccio Di Maggio, an English teacher at the Liceo Scientifico "Galilei" in Modica, who introduced the book. " This balance between sound and semantics has also been sought in the translation, in which the translator has considered and found the most appropriate synonyms, in order to communicate to the reader the true emotional dimension of the work."

Domenico Pisana, President of Modica's Caffè Letterario Quasimodo, praised the emotional impact of Lonardo's poetry:

"The carefully chosen words are rich in images, symbols and analogy, resulting in poetry which has a sublime playful / phonic effect, though it is not baroque in nature."

"Lonardo's poetry", continued Di Maggio, "is classical, yet, at the same time, modern, with figures of speech which draw upon tradition as well as neologisms and anglicisms".

The evening devoted to Lonardo, who has recently been awarded third prize in the national poetry competition, "Axa Prize 2009" for his unpublished poem Luoghi , continued with the reading of some of the poems by the actor Giorgio Sparacino and Prof.ssa Eggleton . Prof.ssa Ausilia Pluchino provided piano accompaniment.

Translation note; the paragraphing is mine as Italian does not go in for it!