Bagutta Prize
1 appearances
-
Edition 41 (1977) Winner
Sandro Penna
サンドロ・ペンナ
Sandro Penna
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1906-06-12 （Perugia, Italy）
- Died
- 1977-01-21 （Rome, Italy） age 70
- Nationality
- Italy
- Languages
- Italian
- Residence History
- Rome, Italy (long-term residence)
Career
- Occupations
- poet, writer
- Active Years
- 1932-1977
- Influenced By
- Umberto Saba
- Influenced
- later Italian poets, Pier Paolo Pasolini (commented on and appreciated his work)
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
Una strana gioia di vivere
1956 poetryA collection of poems depicting urban fragments, longing for young boys, solitude, and delicate emotions.
cityscapesyouthhomosexualitymelancholy
Croce e delizia
1958 poetryContains poems mixing affection, anguish, and light lyrical sensibilities.
lovesufferingeveryday scenes
Tutte le poesie
1970 poetryA collected volume assembling his poems to date.
retrospectivecityhuman relationships
Stranezze
1976 poetryA late-period collection highlighting defamiliarization of the everyday and delicate sensibilities.
defamiliarizationmemoryloneliness
Confuso sogno
1980 poetry (posthumous)Posthumous collection including unpublished pieces and fragments.
recollectiondreamfragmentation
Confused Dream (translation by George Scrivani)
1988 poetry (English translation)English translation by George Scrivani, introducing Penna's Italian poems to an English-speaking audience.
translationreception
Within the Sweet Noise of Life (translation by Alexander Booth)
2021 poetry (English translation)English translation by Alexander Booth, an example of recent re-evaluation and translated publication.
translationreappraisal
Bibliography
- Una strana gioia di vivere
- Croce e delizia
- Tutte le poesie
- Stranezze
- Confuso sogno
Translations of Works
- Confused Dream (George Scrivani translation, 1988)
- Within the Sweet Noise of Life (Alexander Booth translation, 2021)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- concise, lyrical styledelicate depictions of urban everyday lifefrank and sometimes provocative expressions of erotic love
- Recurring Motifs
- young boysstreets, bridges, rivers, sealoneliness and nostalgia
Legacy
Sandro Penna was a distinctive postwar Italian poet who expressed urban fragments and longing for young boys with delicate lyricism. As an openly gay poet he has been recognized and continues to be re-evaluated internationally through translations.
Quotes
-
His poetry was made of "an extremely delicate material of city places, with asphalt and grass, whitewashed walls of poor houses, white marbles of the bridges, and everywhere the sea's breath, the murmur of the river in which the trembling night lights reflect."
Source: Pier Paolo Pasolini (commentary by the poet and critic)
Trivia
- His first poems were published in 1932 through the intervention of Umberto Saba.
- He lived in Rome for most of his life and often experienced financial hardship; intellectuals signed a manifesto in a newspaper to help him in his later years.
- He reportedly took a 14-year-old street boy named Raffaele into his mother's home in 1956 and lived with him on and off for about fourteen years.