Bidspirit auction | Quasimodo, Salvatore

Quasimodo, Salvatore - Quasimodo, Salvatore - On the Greek Lyrics, 1940. First edition, 1940, Corrente publishing house. Editorial paperback. Edizioni di Corrente (printed by Officine Grafiche «Esperia»), «Letteratura» series no. 1, 1940, Original edition, print run for sale. Epochal translation of the Greek lyric poets, with the original text facing: it was the basis of a real phenomenon of cultural reappropriation of that heritage. -- «The memorable translation of the ”Greek Lyric Poets” (Milan 1940) was published by Edizioni di ”Corrente”, with a preface by Anceschi, arousing enthusiasm and controversy, even in academic circles. After suggesting a more general homology between Greek lyric poets and contemporary poets (the new lyric poets of the anthology he edited in 1943), Anceschi promotes the entirely Quasimodian equivalence between Sicilianness and transcendental Greekness and between translation and poetry. The experience of ”Erato e Apòllion” would have brought out, through the evocation of an original and fabulous Sicily, ”the musical memory of a Greece rather Dionysian than Pythagorean, of a Greece of sex and elements”. Extremely rare. Copy embellished with a very familiar autograph dedication to the eminent literary critic Giuseppe Susini. With pencil annotations by Susini. The two had a great friendship cultivated over the years, as witnessed by the beautiful publication ”I poeti deve soffrire: lettere a Giuseppe Susini (1934-1950)”, published in 2003 by Giovanna Musolino for the publishing house Nicolodi of Rovereto.