A Major Selection of the Poetry of Giuseppe Ungaretti: A Bilingual Edition

by Giuseppe Ungaretti, Diego Bastianutti (Translator)

Ungaretti’s beautiful biography is a splendid poetic portrait of the spirit of the first half of this century, in Italy and in the whole of Europe. This is the first time anywhere that all of the poet’s verse has been presented in translation.

471 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

About the author

Giuseppe Ungaretti was an Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic and academic. A leading representative of the experimental trend known as ermetismo, he was one of the most prominent contributors to 20th century Italian literature. Influenced by symbolism, he was briefly aligned with futurism. Like many futurists, he took an irredentist position during World War I. Ungaretti debuted as a poet while fighting in the trenches, publishing one of his best-known pieces, L'allegria ("The Joy").

During the interwar period, Ungaretti was a collaborator of Benito Mussolini (whom he met during his socialist accession), as well as a foreign-based correspondent for Il Popolo d'Italia and La Gazzetta del Popolo. While briefly associated with the Dadaists, he developed ermetismo as a personal take on poetry. After spending several years in Brazil, he returned home during World War II, and was assigned a teaching post at the University of Rome, where he spent the final decades of his life and career. Ungaretti's Fascist past was the subject of controversy.