Collected Poems 1920-1954 [Paperback]

I found Galassi's translations of Montale, oddly disappointing, but intriguing. Not the poet, the book. Montale's poetry is truly gorgeous, but the Galassi translation, problematic to me. I have been cherry picking my way through the poems and the very first I read seems full of misspellings, mistranslations, awkward language. In the Italian, says my google translator, page 94 "lameggia" ought to be "lampeggia" = "flashes" and there is no doubt that "flashes" is far more poetically evocative than the translation chosen, "shines". The next line or two seem rather irrationally broken, which changes them, differently than the Italian. The word "beata", which has been translated as "happily", should, I think, more properly be "blessedly" giving the poem (Maestrale/Mistral) a whole different meaning. In the second line of the poem the word "maretta" meaning "swell(s)" makes far more sense than the word used, "choppy". This was the word that seemed so odd to me initially. Anyone who has spent time by the sea knows that a "choppy" sea does not "talk among the rocks" and has a very different sound, but a swelling sea, moving among rocks, does "talk". There is more even just in this poem, but this is sufficient here. A fair amount of the English is neither grammatically correct nor suitably imagistic in this edition.

There is no table of contents of poems. How ridiculous. The notes at the back of the Galassi/Montale book are alright I suppose, as far as they go, but they seem rather academic in a dry detached kind of way. There is an index of titles and first lines at the back, but it is missing the poem I refer to above "The Agave On The Reef" although the index does contain the sections of that poem: Scirocco, Tramontana and Maestrale (lampeggia is in Maestrale). Perhaps these are corrected in the 2012 revised edition. Editing, design, and layout decisions (and oversights) contribute to the difficulty of finding and accessing individual poems and the notes, all of which contributes to the difficulty of connecting with the poems, which, I think, is what poetry and its language is all about, connecting.

At the time of initial writing of this review one had to wait for another comprehensive translation, but now, the Arrowsmith translation of the collected works is out. It too has the word "lameggia," but still, a google search completely rejects this word over the entire web except to this poem, and searches for, alternatively "lampeggia." Puzzling. I find the Arrowsmith translation far more evocative, poetic, lyrical. The notes too are much better designed to be found and have their own poetic evocations in that translation, and there is a table of contents and an alphabetized index of titles and first lines! So much more accessible.

Poetry in translation is always very difficult, so do some investigating first and chose your preference. While I prefer the Arrowsmith translation and it seems to flow more, the Galassi has words and phrases that stir different images in me and ultimately I like a translation that is a mix of the two. If you are keen on Montale, or any foreign language poet, you will benefit too, if you spend some time working some of it out with a dictionary yourself. It is worth the effort and will enrich your experience and your life, and isn't that what poetry is supposed to do?

Eugenio Montale is my favourite poet, and before I was able to read him in the original Italian I read the extant English translations by Jonathan Galassi and William Arrowsmith. Looking back, I would wholeheartedly recommend Arrowsmith's translations about Galassi's.

Galassi's translations are accurate as far as the meaning goes, but do not sufficiently mirror the sound of Montale's brilliant Italian, and in several poems they do not translate the mood, the essence of Montale's poetic vision. Arrowsmith's translations have always seemed wonderful to me because they capture Montale's emotion (especially the sly irony of SATURA) and remain faithful to the sound of the Italian. If one wishes to read Montale's poems in English, I would highly suggest you purchase William Arrowsmith's translations. Arrowsmith translated not only Montale's first three books as Galassi only did, but also his retrospective SATURA, some of his best poetry.

This edition by Galassi does warrant recognition, however, for one thing. His attached essay, "Reading Montale," does a great deal for the unfamiliar reader to explain the nature of Montale's "Clizia" mythos, and his analysis of the cicada symbol teaches the reader to appreciate Montale's complex symbolism.

Ably translated and annotated by Jonathan Galassi, this revised bilingual edition of Eugenio Montale's Collected Poems 1920-1954 brings the lyrical Italian poet's work to a new generation of readers. Montale is a gifted poet who work is deeply beautiful as it confronts the dilemmas of modern history, philosophy, and faith. Day And Night: A floating feather, too, can sketch your image/or the sunbeam playing hied-and-seek/in the furniture, rebounding off/a baby's mirror or the roofs. Above the walls/wisps of steam draw out the poplars' spires/and the knifegrinder's parrot down below/fans his feathers on his perch. And then the hazy night/in the little square, and footsteps, and always/this painful effort to sink under/to re-emerge the same for centuries, or seconds,/by ghosts who can't win back the light of your eyes/inside the incandescent cave -- and still/the same shouts and long wailing on the veranda/if suddenly the shot rings out/that reddens your throat and shears/your wings. O perilous harbinger of dawn,/and the cloisters and the hospitals awake/to a resounding chorus of horns...