Background
Luciano Erba was born on September 18, 1922, in Milan, Italy.
Via Orazio, 3, 20123 Milano MI, Italy
Luciano graduated from Liceo Manzoni in Milan in 1940.
Largo Agostino Gemelli, 1, 20123 Milano MI, Italy
Luciano received his Ph.D. from Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan in 1947.
(This collection of poems scrupulously records everyday ev...)
This collection of poems scrupulously records everyday events and engages them in a sultry search for some cosmic meaning. With his wry wit and subtle verbal shifts, the poet continually drops reminders of the illusory jungle that surrounds people. This collection of poems scrupulously records everyday events and engages them in a sultry search for some cosmic meaning. With his wry wit and subtle verbal shifts, the poet continually drops reminders of the illusory jungle that surrounds people.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hippopotamus-Essential-Poets-117-Guernica/dp/1550711571/?tag=prabook0b-20
(Luciano Erba's poems discover in the details of everyday ...)
Luciano Erba's poems discover in the details of everyday life - a cream-colored tie, an old book, a swallow - access to far-reaching mysteries, including the fact of our being here at all. One of Italy's most important contemporary poets, Erba is approachable yet complex, distinctively and artfully combining traditional and informal means in his brief lyrics. He turns a cool eye on the passing scene, allowing us to see life in a new light. This bilingual edition contains the most comprehensive and representative selection of Erba's poetry ever published in English. Distinguished British poet and translator Peter Robinson, working with the encouragement and advice of the author, has rendered accurate and elegant English translations of the facing-page Italian originals. Complete with a preface, introduction, and notes, this is an ideal introduction to a unique and compelling modern Italian poet.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Greener-Meadow-Selected-Lockert-Translation/dp/0691127646/?tag=prabook0b-20
Luciano Erba was born on September 18, 1922, in Milan, Italy.
Luciano graduated from Liceo Manzoni in Milan in 1940. He received his Ph.D. from Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan in 1947.
Luciano has always remained in Italy (except for brief periods in other countries), a connection that is reflected in his poetry. Among his contemporaries, who are often labeled the fourth generation, are Giorgio Orelli, Vittorio Sereni, Renzo Modesti, and Andrea Zanzotto.
In 1952, Erba's poetry received critical attention when it was included in Luciano Anceschi's collection Linea lombarda ("Lombard Line").
Erba's first solo poetry collection, a slim volume titled Linea K, was published in 1951. The poems from this book were republished along with others written in the 1950s at the end of the decade under the title Il male minore ("The Lesser Evil," 1960).
After the publication of Il male minore when Erba was thirty-eight years old, he would not publish his poetry again for another seventeen years. During this period, he worked as an academic and translator. He became a professor of French language and literature at various universities. He has also translated the work of French, English, and American poets and published a celebrated collection of Cyrano de Bergerac's correspondence titled Lettres in 1965. Erba's next poetry collection, Il prato piu verde ("The Greenest Lawn"), was published in 1977. This experimental volume consists primarily of short lyrics in free verse, often without punctuation. These poems evoke a sense of nostalgia for the past, a kind of nostalgia that is darker and more melancholy than the poet's early works, but still manages to offer instances of hope.
Erba's next collection, Il nastro di Moebius ("The Moebius Strip") was published in 1977. It combines works from Il male minore and Il prato piu verde with three sections of new poems. The title poem in this collection (which first appeared in II prato piu), "Moebius," is about a nineteenth-century German astronomer and mathematician. He is best known for the Moebius strip, which is explained by Maria Nina Lombardo in Dictionary of Literary Biography as "a one-sided geometric figure that can be followed infinitely without crossing an edge reaching its end." In Erba's poetry, the Moebius strip is a metaphor for the endlessness and repetitiveness of the human condition.
Erba continued to publish his poetry in the 1980s. Il cerchio aperto ("The Open Circle") appeared in 1983. Il tranviere metafisico ("Metaphysical Conductor") was published in 1987, followed by L'ippopotamo ("The Hippopotamus"), published in 1989.
Throughout his career, Erba has continued his work as a scholar. He chaired the Department of French Language and Literature at the University of Verona where he taught beginning in 1982.
He died on August 3, 2010 in Milan, Italy.
(Luciano Erba's poems discover in the details of everyday ...)
(This collection of poems scrupulously records everyday ev...)
Luciano married Maria Giuseppina Sain in 1961. They had three daughters.