Andrea Zanzotto
Encyclopedia
Biography
Andrea Zanzotto was born in Pieve di SoligoPieve di Soligo
Pieve di Soligo is a town with a population of 12,096 inhabitants. It located at the northern province of Treviso, near the border with the province of Belluno in Veneto, Italy.-Notable people:...
(province of Treviso
Province of Treviso
The Province of Treviso is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Treviso.The province has an area of 2,477 km², and a total population of 886.886 . There are 95 municipalities in the province .-Municipalities:-External links:*...
, Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
), Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
to Giovanni and Carmela Bernardi.
His father, Giovanni (born November 18, 1888), had received degrees from the École supèrieure de peinture at Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
(1911, specializing in trompe-l'oeil in wood and marble) and the Academy of Fine Arts at Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
(1913, diploma di professore di disegno). Having been hired by a large painting business in Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
, he was inducted into the army in 1915 and took part in combat on the Piave River
Piave River
Piave is a river in north Italy. It begins in the Alps and flows southeast for into the Adriatic Sea near the city of Venice....
. Giovanni had been involved with Carmela for some time, but postponed marriage until his work abroad (Trieste at that time belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire) earned him enough to support a family.
Education
For the first two years of his life, Zanzotto lived with his parents near via Sirtori. In 1922, they moved into a house that the father acquired in the Cal Santa district. This would be the setting and house most often described by the poet. As he wrote in his "Self-portrait" (, 1977), this was from the very beginning, the center of his world.In 1923, his sisters Angela and Marina were born. In 1924 he attended a Montessori kindergarten run by nuns. In 1925, his sister Maria was born.
In the meantime, his father, who had openly espoused support for Giacomo Matteotti
Giacomo Matteotti
Giacomo Matteotti was an Italian socialist politician. On 30 May 1924, he openly spoke in the Italian Parliament alleging the Fascists committed fraud in the recently held elections, and denounced the violence they used to gain votes...
, was accused of anti-fascism. In the course of time his opposition to the fascist regime made it difficult for him to find any kind of work, to the point of deciding in 1925 to take refuge in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and then at Annoeullin (near Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
), where he worked for some friends of his. He returned to his home country for a brief period, but in 1926 was forced back to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, remaining in Royan
Royan
Royan is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department, along the Atlantic Ocean, in southwestern France.A seaside resort, Royan is in the heart of an urban area estimated at 38,638 inhabitants, which makes it the fourth-largest conurbation in the department, after La Rochelle, Rochefort and Saintes...
until December of that year.
Elementary school
Thanks to his teacher, Marcellina Dalto, Zanzotto already knew how to write when he started the elementary school in 1927. He passed immediately to the second grade. As the poet recounts in his "Self-portrait", he already took pleasure in the music of words: "I felt something infinitely sweet listening to chants, nursery rhymes and little verses, even those of the children's magazine Il Corriere dei Piccoli -- not so much in singing, but insofar as they were pronounced or simply spoken, according to harmony linked to the very function of language, to its inner song."In 1928 his father Giovanni took a job as a teacher in a school in Cadore
Cadore
Cadore is a "comunità montana" in the Italian region of Veneto, in the northernmost part of the province of Belluno bordering on Austria, the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It is watered by the Piave River poured forth from the Carnic Alps...
and decided to move with the family to Santo Stefano
Santo Stefano di Cadore
Santo Stefano di Cadore is a town in the province of Belluno, Veneto, north-eastern Italy....
where Zanzotto completed his second grade. By
the end of summer, however, Giovanni realized that the distance between his wife and her mother was causing his wife to suffer. He decided to move the family back to Pieve.
The death of Zanzotto's sister Marina in 1929 made a lasting impression on the mind of the young poet.
In that year, his father Giovanni came to public attention for his campaigning again the fascist plebiscite, and was condemned to remain in exile. Nevertheless, he managed to work on the restoration of the church at Costalissoio. Zanzotto, attending third grade at the time, joined him during summer vacation, but suffered homesickness.
In 1930, Zanzotto's brother Ettore was born. At the same time, Giovanni was force to go into debt due to the embezzlement and flight of a clerk at the company (a labor cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
for injured veterans) which was providing him with the means to support the family. This imposed financial constraints on the entire family.
During this period, he became close to his maternal grandmother and to his aunt Maria, who as he wrote in Uno squardo dalla periferia ("A view from the edge"), made him listen to "fragments of Latino maccheronico (mock Latin)" and involved him in the activity of the little theater where she worked as a draumaturge, capocomico, director and actress.
At school, he proved a lively but not always disciplined student, often receiving the scoldings of his father. The young man showed no talent for drawing, the very subject which the father had mastered. The father insisted then that Zanzotto take music lessons, since music was the passion of the town thanks to the fame of local soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Toti Dal Monte
Toti Dal Monte
Antonietta Meneghel , better known by her stage name Toti Dal Monte, was a celebrated Italian operatic soprano with a sweet and limpid lyric voice. She was a favourite artist of the celebrated conductor Arturo Toscanini...
(whom Zanzotto would recall at the being of his opera, Idioma).
Middle school
Having completed elementary school in 1931 as an off-campus student at the Collegio Balbi-Valier and taken his examinations in Vittorio VenetoVittorio Veneto
Vittorio Veneto is a city and comune situated in the Province of Treviso, in the region of Veneto, Italy, in the northeast of the Italian peninsula, between the Piave and the Livenza rivers.-Geography:...
, Zanzotto began middle school, gradually arriving at the decision to study to pursue a teaching diploma, a decision driven above all by his family's precarious financial position.
His father worked in the meantime in Santo Stefano, but was forced, in 1932, due to poorer wages, to return to Annoeullin where he remained until November. He returned to Pieve in 1933 and although he remained under a ban that prevented him from teaching, he was able to contribute to the upkeep of his family thanks to a part-time position at Collegio Balbi-Valier and to various odd jobs. Taking account of his responsibilities to the family, he avoided any direct conflict with his political enemies.
Teaching school
With the transition to teaching school, which Zanzotto commuted to TrevisoTreviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
to attend, commenced his first strong literary interests, which he nourished at the moment by consulting the encyclopedia compiled by Giacomo Prampolini.
In 1936, his first love re-emerged alongside the inspiration for the first verses he succeeded in publishing, with the cooperation of his grandmother and aunt, in an anthology for which he paid a small fee.
The verses didn't yet have a personal style, and felt the influence of Giovanni Pascoli
Giovanni Pascoli
Giovanni Placido Agostino Pascoli was an Italian poet and classical scholar.- Biography :Giovanni Pascoli was born at San Mauro di Romagna , into a well-to-do family. He was the fourth of ten children of Ruggero Pascoli and Caterina Vincenzi Alloccatelli...
, given that a nephew of Pascoli worked in the local bank, and knowing his passion for poetry, presented him with a gift of some of the poet's work in first edition.
High school
In 1937 his sister Angela died of typhusTyphus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
. To the pain of grief, which had stricken him profoundly, was added the fatigue of the commute to Treviso and the intensification of his studies. Wanting to graduate in the shortest time possible, he had undergone an examination in October of the previous year, comprising all of the junior year subjects. He passed it and started to study Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
in order to pass the entrance examination for liceo classico (a high school focused on Classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
).
Allergies and asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
, from which he had already suffered, began to present themselves in more forceful episodes. In addition to the symptoms, these brought on a feeling of exclusion and peril: "I think it may have had a negative influence on my childhood and adolescence, this particular aberrant idea which gradually took root in me: the impossibility of actively participating in the game of life, insofar as I would soon be excluded. I suffered from various types of allergies, and at that time, the diagnosis could be rather confused and doubtful. Asthma and hay fever
Hay Fever
Hay Fever is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Laura Hope Crews played the role in New York...
, which had tormented me since I was a boy, were sometimes interpreted as a condition that could seriously worsen, even in the short term" (from the "Self-Portrait").
Having received his teaching credentials, he was entrusted with several pupils for private lessons by the director of Collegio Balbi-Valler and obtained 2,000 lire
Lira
Lira is the name of the monetary unit of a number of countries, as well as the former currency of Italy, Malta, San Marino and the Vatican City and Israel. The term originates from the value of a Troy pound of high purity silver. The libra was the basis of the monetary system of the Roman Empire...
as a debt of honor from the parish priest, Monsignor Martin, for continuing his studies.
Zanzotto passed the admission examination, finally achieving his classical diploma by examination without formal preparation at the Liceo Canova in Treviso.
University
In 1939, he enrolled in the College of Letters at the University of PaduaUniversity of Padua
The University of Padua is a premier Italian university located in the city of Padua, Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe. It is among the earliest universities of the world and the second...
where he studied under Diego Valeri and the Latinist, Concetto Marchesi.
With Valeri's encouragement, he immersed himself in the writings of Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
and discovered Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
as well as (thanks to Luigi Stefanini) the poetry of Hölderlin
Friedrich Hölderlin
Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was a major German lyric poet, commonly associated with the artistic movement known as Romanticism. Hölderlin was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism, particularly his early association with and philosophical influence on his...
, which he read for the first time in Vincenzo Errante's translation.
Meanwhile, he began to study German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
so that he might read Hölderlin, Goethe and Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
in the original.
In 1940, he worked for the first time as a substitute teacher in Valdobbiadene
Valdobbiadene
Valdobbiadene is a town in the province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy. Valdobbiadene is a picturesque wine growing area. Just below the Alpine areas of Veneto, it provides a climate for cool varieties of grape. This area is the home of ProseccoConegliano-Valdobbiadene a dry sparkling white wine....
. He discovered at that time that within the regime and above all in the student clubs,
there were many who nevertheless acted with practical autonomy, or in contrast to himself, as he came to be informed by his friend, Ettore Luccini, history and philosophy teacher at the liceo classico.
In this period, they put out the magazine Il Bo in Padua, marked by a notably non-conformist stance, as well as the University of Treviso periodical, Signum (along with Giorgio Strehler, Mario Luzi
Mario Luzi
- Biography:Mario Luzi was born in Castello, near Sesto Fiorentino; his parents, Ciro Luzi and Margherita Papini hailed from Samprugnano and he spent his youth in Castello, where he started his primary school...
and Mario Tobino, among others), which exhibited a superficial adherence to the positions of the regime.
The news of the outbreak of war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was met in the town with great consternation, the economic crisis came to the fore, and Zanzotto's family had to sell half of the house at Col Santa.
In 1941 the substitute teaching position in Valdobbiadene was not renewed, but Zanzotto managed to find one in Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
with a middle school.
At the Young Fascists University of Treviso (Gioventù Universitaria Fascista), within which there were also people practicing anti-fascism, he made, in 1942, a "presentation" on Eugenio Montale
Eugenio Montale
Eugenio Montale was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975.- Early years :...
, where he interpreted the pessimism of the author in a political and ethical light.
He received his diploma in Italian literature
Italian literature
Italian literature is literature written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in Italy in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian....
on October 30, 1942, with a thesis on the work of Grazia Deledda
Grazia Deledda
Grazia Deledda was an Italian writer whose works won her the Nobel Prize for Literature for 1926.-Biography:...
. Professor Natale Busetto was his advisor (relatore).
The war
Called to military service, he received a deferment for his weak upper body and his severe allergy-related asthma, and thus was exempted from conscription into the army of '21, protagonist of the military campaign in RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. He then refused to respond to the recruitment of volunteers organized by the Fascist Party.
He published a prose poem entitled Adagio in issue 10 of Signum, and the first drafts of fiction, lyrical and prose, that would make up the older core of Sull'Altopiano ("On the Plateau", published in 1964) date back to that year.
An opportunity to publish presented itself in the collection of poetry assembled by the florentine magazine Rivoluzione, founded by Mario Tobino
Mario Tobino
Mario Tobino was an Italian poet, writer and psychiatrist.Tobino was born in Viareggio, Tuscany. A prolific writer, he debuted as a poet but later composed mostly novels...
, but due to the war, the periodical was forced to shut down.
Works in English translation
- Selected Poetry and Prose of Andrea Zanzotto, Edited and Translated by Patrick Barron With Additional Translations by Ruth Feldman, Thomas J. Harrison, Brian Swann, John P. Welle, and Elizabeth A. Wilkins. 2009, University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226978857.
- Selected Poetry of Andrea Zanzotto, edited and translated by Ruth FeldmanRuth FeldmanRuth Feldman was an American poet and translator.-Life:Her father died when she was young and her mother when she was just 17...
-Brian Swann, Princeton University Press, PrincetonPrinceton, New JerseyPrinceton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
, (New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
) 1975 - Poems by Andrea Zanzotto, Translated from the Italian by Anthony BarnettAnthony Barnett (poet)-Published Poetry:His volumes of poetry and short prose include collected The Resting Bell and Miscanthus: Selected and New Poems . He was the publisher of the first edition of J. H. Prynne’s collected Poems and edited Veronica Forrest-Thomson’s Collected Poems and Translations and Collected Poems...
, A-B, Lewes (CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
) 1993 ISBN 0-907954-19-7; translation from LA BELTA and from PASQUE. - Peasant's Wake for Fellini's "Casanova" and Other Poems, Edited and Translated by John p. WelleJohn P. WelleJohn P. Welle is an American professor of Italian Studies and translator of poems from Italian to English.-Life:He graduated from St. John's University and University of Indiana with an MFA and PhD...
and Ruth Feldman, Drawings by Federico FelliniFederico FelliniFederico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
and Augusto Murer, University of IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
Press, Urbana and Chicago 1997
External links
- Two poems by Zanzotto "Subnarcosis" & "The Peace of Olive" @ on-line journal "Fascicle"
- Zanzotto poems translated by Dino Fabris includes poems and critique in English
- That Is How We Are (poem) online @ Jubilat