Salvatore Quasimodo Biography and List of Works

Italian poet, critic, and translator, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1959.Quasimodo's works fall roughly into two periods, divided by World War II. His early poems were difficult with their metaphysical and highly personalized imagery, but in later works he was more concerned with the interpretation of contemporary history, social conditions, the horrors of war, and the problems of human suffering.

"Pietà, ch'io non sia / senza voci e figure
nella memoria un giorno."
(from 'Airone morto')

Quasimodo was born in Modica, a small town near Syracuse, Sicily, the son of a railway officer. He started to write in his childhood. When his parents felt that technical training would be more practical, Quasimodo moved to Rome where he studied engineering at the Polytechnic Institute. Because of financial problems, he left the school and then held a number of jobs. In 1926 he was appointed to the government Civil Engineering Department. Quasimodo's brother-in-law, Elio Vittorini, who became a novelist, introduced him to the literary circles. Among his friends were Eugenio Montale, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Alessandro Bonsati.

Quasimodo's earliest poems appeared in magazines. His first collection of poems, ACQUE E TERRE (Water and Land), was published in 1930. Water and Land contained nostalgic poems about Sicily, and reveal moods of loneliness and melancholy. It was followed by OBOE SOMMERSO (1932), ERATO E APOLLION (1936), and POESIE (1938), in which Quasimodo poetic language showed the influence of symbolism and was rarefied to verbalize his personal impressions. In 1938 he resigned from his work, and became an assistant to Cesare Zavattini, who was editor of several periodicals. In 1941 Quasimodo was made professor of Italian literature at Milan's Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory.

During WW II Quasimodo was a member of an anti-Fascist group, and was briefly imprisoned. His most widely read book, ED È SUBITO SERA, appeared in 1942. After the war he joined the Italian Communist party, but resigned in protest when the party insisted that he should write political poems. GIORNO DOPO GIORNO (1947) reflected his country's hardships and his horror at Italy's role in the war. It has been characterized as perhaps the best volume of poetry to come out of World War II in any country.

Quasimodo's first wife Bice Donetti died in 1948, and he married the dancer Maria Cumani. They separated permanently in 1960. His daughter Orietta was born out of wedlock in 1935 to Amelia Specialetti. Quasimodo's last four volumes of verse show a continuing concern for social justice, and a fond memory of past friends and past loves. His last book of verse was DARE E AVERE (1966, To Give and to Have). While presiding over a poetry competition in Amalfi, he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died in Naples, on June 14, 1968.

"Poetry, even lyrical poetry, is always 'speech.' The listener may be the physical or metaphysical interior of the poet, or a man, or a thousand men."

Recurrent themes in Quasimodo's works are memories of childhood and Sicily. He recalls certain landscapes, his experiences of them, what they meant to him, and connects his impressions to historical and literary associations, and the cultural heritage from Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and other invaders. In the 1930s he became a leader of the 'hermeneutic' poet with Eugenio Montale (1896-1981) and Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970), abandoning realism. After WW II his poetry dealt largely with social issues, reflecting deep concern for the fate of Italy. He also wrote many essays on literature and translated classical poetry and drama, among them such writers as William Shakespeare, Molière (Tartuffe), Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Virgil, Catullus. Translations from European and American contemporaries include e.e. cummings and Pablo Neruda.

For further reading: Quasimodo by G.Cambon (1960, in Chelsea 6, pp. 60-67); The Poem Itself, ed. by S. Burnshaw (1960); Dialogue With and Audience by J. Ciardi (1963); Poetry of This Age by J.M. Cohen (1966); Salvatore Quasimodo by D. Dutschke (1969, in Italian Quaterly 12, 91-103); Encyclopaedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999, vol. 3)

Forse è segno vero della vita:
intorno a me fanciulli con leggeri
moti del capo danzano in un gionco
di cadenze e di voci lungo il prato
della chiesa. Pietà della sera, ombre
riaccese sopra l'erba così verde,
hellissime nel fuoco della luna!
Memoria vi concede breve sonno; ora,
destatevi. Ecco, scroscia il pozzo
per la prima marea. Questa è l'ora:
non più mia, arsi, remoti simulacri.
(from 'Ride la gazza, nera sugli araci')

ACQUE E TERRE, (1930)