THE END OF THE POEM Studies in Poetics Giorgio Agamben
The End of the Poem: Studies in Poetics was Poetics was originally published in Italian in 1996 under the title Categorie italiane: Studi di poetica © poetica © 1996 by Marsilio Editori for the Italian edition Stanford Uniersity !ress Stanford" #alifornia
Acknowledgments $#omedy$ first appeared in Paragone 347 % % 19&'() $#orn* +rom Anatomy to !oeti,s$ was published in Le Moyen Âge dans la modernit! Mlanges offerts " #oger $ragonetti! ed% &ean #% Scheidegger! Sa'ine Sa'ine (irardet! and Eric )ic*s + (ene,a: (ene,a: Champion! -../0% -../0% 1The $ream of Language!1 originally 2ritten for the ondaione Cini conference 1Languages of $reaming!1 appeared in Lettere italiane 4 + -.560% 1Pascoli and the Thought of the oice1 2as pu'lished as a preface to (io,anni Pascoli! 8l fanciullino + Milan: eltrinelli! -.560% 1The $ictation of Poetry1 appeared as a preface to 9ntonio $elfinis Poesie della fine del mondo +Macerata: ;uodli'et! -..<0% 1E=propriated Manner1 2as pu'lished as a preface to (iorgio Caproni ! #es amissa + Milan: (aranti! -..-0% 1The Cele'ration of the )idden Treasure1 2as presented at a conference on Elsa Morante in Perugia in &anuary -..3% 1The End of the Poem1 2as presented >o,em'er -?! -..ot eed on Light1 Light1 appeared in 8dra < + -..60 -..60 as an introduction to Eugenio $e Signori'us poems% 1Ta*ing Lea,e of Tragedy1 2as pu'lished in ine secolo! $ecem'er 7! -.5<% (%9%
Contents
Preface § 1 omed! § " orn# From Anatom! to Poetics § $ T%e Dream of &anguage § ' Pascoli and t%e T%oug%t of t%e (oice § ) T%e Dictation of Poetr! § * E+,ro,riated Manner § - T%e ele.ration of t%e Hidden Treasure § / T%e End of t%e Poem
-i 1 ./ 0/ 6. &6 '& 1. 19
Appendix
A An Enigma oncerning t%e 0asue 2oman 0 T%e Hunt for &anguage T%e 3ust Do Not Feed on &ig%t D Taking &ea4e of Traged! Notes
119 1.0 1.6 1/ 1/2
Preface 3etween 19&0 and 19&6 I met regularly in !aris with Italo #alino and #laudio 4ugafiori to define the program of a reiew) 5he proe,t was ambitious" and our ,onersations" whi,h often were not entirely fo,used" followed the dominant motifs and muffled e,hoes of ea,h of our interests) 7e were" howeer" in agreement about one thing* one se,tion of the reiew was to be dedi,ated to the definition of what we ,alled $Italian ,ategories)$ It was a matter of identifying nothing less than the ,ategorial stru,tures of Italian ,ulture through a series of ,onoined polar ,on,epts) #laudio immediately suggested architectureD,agueness %that is" the domination of the mathemati,al8ar,hite,toni, order alongside the per,eption of beauty as something ague() Italo had already been ordering images and themes along the ,oordinates of speedDlightness) speedDlightness) 7oring on the essay on the title of the $i,ine Comedy that opens this ,olle,tion" I proposed that we e-plore seeral oppositions* tragedyDcomedy! la2D creature! 'iographyDfa'le) 'iographyDfa'le ) +or reasons that need not be ,larified here" the proe,t was neer reali:ed) ;n,e we had h ad returned to Italy" we all88if in different ways88,onfronted the politi,al ,hange that was already under way and that was to impress the 19's with its dar seal) It was obiously a time not for programmati, definitions" but for resistan,e and flight) E,hoes of our ,ommon proe,t ,an be found in Italo 9merican Italo 9merican Lectures" Lectures" as well as in a large noteboo that has remained among his papers) +or my part" I attempted to establish the physiognomy of the proe,t" before it was definitiely ,an,eled" in the $program for a reiew$ published in limine in limine in 8nfancy and )istory ) %5hose who are interested may loo in those pages for the proisional list of ,ategories in their original" problemati, ,onte-t)( In their own way" the eight studies ,olle,ted here %the first of whi,h dates from the time of the proe,t" the last of whi,h was finished in 1992( remain faithful to this program) In the ,ourse of time" other ,ategories ,ame to be added to those rudimentary first ones %%mother mother tongue D grammatical language li,ing language D dead language style D manner () () At the same time" the proe,t of a definition of these ,ategories gradually gae way to a study of the general problems in poeti,s that they implied) Ea,h of the essays in this boo thus sees to define a general problem of poeti,s with respe,t to an e-emplary ,ase in the history of literature) 5he intragedy ,omedy>tragedy opposition at the beginning of 4oman,e poetry? a reading of )ypnerotomachia Polifili and and !as,oli ,onsiders the problem of the relation between liing language and dead language as a fundamental internal tension in the poeti,s of modernity? the introdu,tion to the poeti, wor of a ,ontemporary Italian writer" Antonio =elfini" fun,tions as an o,,asion to reformulate the old problem of the relation between life and poetry and to define the prin,iple of narratie in 4oman,e literatures as an inention of lied e-perien,e on the basis of poetry? and" finally" an analysis of one of the greatest poets of the twentieth ,entury" Giorgio #aproni" defines the a,t of writing with respe,t to the diale,ti,al tension of style and manner) In 1Corn: rom 9natomy to Poetics1 and and 1The End of the Poem!1 the the sube,t of study shifts to the problem of the spe,ifi, stru,ture of the poem itself) 5hese two essays are thus to be understood as a first ,ontribution to a philosophy and ,riti,ism of meter that do not yet e-ist) 5he first of these essays" whi,h e-amines Arnaut =aniel@s obs,ene sir,entes" sir,entes" deelops 4oman aobson@s problem of the relation between sound and sense? the se,ond" whi,h lends its title to the boo as a whole" ,onsiders the end of the poem as a point of ,risis that is in eery sense fundamental to the stru,ture of poetry) 5he initial program of a systemati, grid of the ,ategories bearing on Italian ,ulture neertheless remains unfinished" and this boo merely offers a torso of the idea of whi,h we on,e tried to ,at,h sight) It is therefore dedi,ated to the memory not only of ,ompanionship" but also of the one among us who is no longer present to bear witness to it)
THE END OF THE POEM
§ 1 omed! 15 THE P6O0&EM 1) 5he aim of this essay is the ,riti,al assessment of an eent that ,an be ,hronologi,ally dated at the beginning of the fourteenth ,entury but that" by irtue of its still e-erting a profound influen,e on Italian ,ulture" ,an be said to hae neer ,eased to tae pla,e) 5his eent is the de,ision of a poet to abandon his own $tragi,$ poeti, proe,t for a $,omi,$ poem) 5his de,ision translates into an e-tremely famous incipit " whi,h one of the author@s letters states as follows* $Bere begins the #omedy of =ante Alighieri" a +lorentine by birth" not by disposition$ % 8ncipit comoedia $antis 9lagherii florentini natione non mori'us() 5he turn registered by these words is so little a
faulty) 7e hold that until proen otherwise" =ante" as $a most prudent man$ %oculatissimo uomo(" ,ould not hae ,hosen his incipit lightly or superfi,ially) ;n the ,ontrary" pre,isely the fa,t that the ,omi, title appears dis,ordant with respe,t to what we now of the ideas of the poet and his age brings us to ,laim that it was ,arefully ,onsidered) .) A pre,ise study of the passages in whi,h =ante speas of ,omedy and tragedy demonstrates that this ,laim is te-tually founded) 7e thus now that to =ante@s eyes" the poeti, proe,t that gae birth to the great songs of the #ime seemed eminently tragi,) In $e ,ulgari eloBuentia" he e-pli,itly states that the tragi, style is the highest of all styles and the only one appropriate to the ultimate obe,ts of poetry* $well8being" loe and irtue$ %salus" amor et ,irtus() 6 A little later he defines the song canoneF" the supreme poeti, genre" as a ,onne,ted series of etragedy opposition) 5he radi,ality with whi,h the letter to #angrande transforms this double ,lassifi,ation into a tragedy>,omedy antinomy88an antinomy that is at on,e stylisti, and substantial" and with respe,t to whi,h other poeti, genres are
+rom this perspe,tie" the e,logue to Gioanni di Cirgilio ,onstitutes another pie,e of eiden,e) Bere =ante alludes to his own poem with the e-pression comica ,er'a) 12 5he interpretation of this passage has been led astray by one of 3o,,a,,io@s glosses" whi,h e-plains that $,omi,a" id est ulgaria)$ 5he influen,e of this gloss has been so tena,ious that een in the re,ent Enciclopedia dantesca one reads that" in the first e,logue" =ante resolutely identified $the ,omi, in the erna,ular)$ A te-t that ,ould hae shed light on =ante@s ,hoi,e of title thus be,ame irreleant" sin,e the identifi,ation between ,omi, style and the Italian language is ,learly untenable) 16 An attentie reading of Gioanni@s erse epistle demonstrates that the reproa,hes made to =ante by the 3olognese humanist hae as their obe,t not simply the use of the erna,ular as opposed to Hatin but rather the ,hoi,e of ,omedy as opposed to tragedy) 5he e-pression with whi,h Gioanni ,hara,teri:es =ante@s writing" sermone forensi " does not allude to the erna,ular but rather ,orresponds to the sermone pedestri of the passage in Bora,e ,ited by =ante in his letter to #angrande" as well as to the cotidiano sermone of medieal poeti,s) 1& Sermone forensi " in other words" refers to a ,hoi,e of style and not language) 5his interpretation is ,onfirmed by a further passage in the letter in whi,h Gioanni" spe,ifying his obe,tions" en,ourages =ante to sing in $propheti, erse$ the great fa,ts of the history of his age" that is" the heroi, and $publi,$ material of tragedy instead of the $priate$ matters of ,omedy) At the ,enter of the debate with Gioanni di Cirgilio" whi,h belongs to the ,ultural ,ir,le from whi,h the first modern tragedy" Mussato tragoedia Ecerinis! 2as to 'e 'orn! is not as much the LatinD,ernacular opposition as the tragedyDcomedy one% This testifies once again to the fact that for $ante! the comic title of his poem is neither contingent nor fragmentary! 'ut rather constitutes the affirmation of a principle% /) If this is true" then it is all the more dispiriting that the title of the #omedy is not ,ompatible with the set of definitions gien by =ante for the tragi,>,omi, opposition" and that these definitions ,annot" moreoer" be redu,ed to a unitary system) As has been noted" these definitions are arti,ulated on two planes* a stylisti,8formal one %the modus loBuendi (" and a materialsubstantial one %the materia or sententia() In $e ,ulgari eloBuentia %in whi,h the stylisti, aspe,t is prealent and whose in,ompleteness is su,h that this wor gies us no genuine themati, treatment of ,omedy(" the tragi, style is defined" a,,ording to the prin,iples of the ,lassi,al tripartition of styles" as the most eleated style %superiorem stilum(" in harmony with the height of the material resered for it %the three great magnalia* salus" amore" and ,irtus() In the letter to #angrande" in whi,h the material arti,ulation is prealent" the tragi,>,omi, opposition is instead ,hara,teri:ed on the plane of ,ontent and as an opposition of beginning and end* tragedy is mared by an $admirable$ and $pea,eful$ beginning and a $foul$ and $horrible$ end? ,omedy by a $horrible$ and $foul$ beginning and a $prosperous$ and $pleasant$ end) ;n the stylisti, plane" the tragi,>,omi, opposition is presented as an opposition between what is" in one ,ase" an eleated and sublime modus lo harsh beginning" foul end > prosperous end opposition88that is" pre,isely the element that appears to our eyes as a mannered repetition of e-tremely superfi,ial le-i,ographi, stereotypes) 5his is so mu,h the ,ase that one of the oldest ,ommentators and almost all modern s,holars prefer to dwell on the stylisti,8formal reasons" howeer defi,ient they may be" rather than a,,ept the idea that =ante ,ould hae ,hosen the title of his own poem on the basis of su,h in,onse
Buia 8nfernus( and the $pleasant$ end of the !aradiso %in fine prospera" desiderabilis et grata"
115 T6A78 798&T AND OM8 798&T 1) 5he definition of the tragi,>,omi, opposition gien in the letter to #angrande has until now been ,onsidered in isolation" without being pla,ed in relation to its ,onte-t) 7hile this definition" or at least the part that interests us" ,on,erns the wor@s $material$ %>am si ad materiam respiciamus) ) )(" the immediate ,onte-t to whi,h it must be brought ba, is the wor@s su'iectum) A little later" =ante defines this $sube,t$ in the following terms* 5he sube,t" then" of the whole wor" taen in the literal sense only" is the state of souls after death" pure and simple) +or on and about that the argument of the whole wor turns) If" howeer" the wor be regarded from the allegori,al point of iew" the sube,t is man a,,ording as by his merits or demerits in the e-er,ise of his free will he is desering of reward or punishment by usti,e) %Est ergo su'iectum totius operis! litteraliter tantum accepti! status animarum post mortem simpliciter sumptus% >am de illo et circa illum totius operis ,ersatur processus% Si ,ero accipiatur opus allegorice! su'iectum est homo prout merendo et demerendo per ar'itrii li'ertatem iustitie premiandi et puniendi o'no=ius est )( 19 5he $prosperous$ or $foul$ ending" whether ,omi, or tragi," therefore a,
a,,ount by s,holars) Attention has been gien mainly to latean,ient grammarians %su,h as =onatus and =iomedes( and le-i,ographers %su,h as !apia and Ugu,,ione(" although we now that the te-t of the Poetics was a,,essible in Hatin both in partial form" through Berman the German@s translation of Aerroes@s Middle #ommentary" and in its entirety" through 7illiam of Moerbee@s translation) . If ,omi, pe,,atum was ,hara,teri:ed here as a turpitudo non dolorosa et non corrupti,a" .1 the essen,e of the tragi, affair was defined as a transformation of prosperity into bad lu," not through radi,al moral guilt % propter malitiam et pestilentiam( but through a peccatum aliBuod ) 5he presentation of a guilty person % pestilens( who went from bad lu, to prosperity %e= infortunio in eufortunium( was" by ,ontrast" treated as what was most antitragi, %intragodotatissimum() .. In Aerroes@s paraphrase" the e-,lusion from tragedy of a sube,tiely guilty %impro'um( ,hara,ter is understood in the sense that the essen,e of the tragi, situation moes $from the imitation of irtue to the imitation of the misfortune into whi,h the ust hae fallen$ %e= imitatione ,irtutem ad imitationem ad,ersae fortunae! in Buam pro'i lapsi sint () ./ 5he parado- of Gree tragi, hamartia8the ,onfli,t between a hero@s sube,tie inno,en,e and an obe,tiely attributed guilt88is thus interpreted by positing at its ,enter the misfortune of a $ust person$ % pro'us() 7ith astounding sensibility" Aerroes thus finds in the story of Abraham the tragi, situation par e-,ellen,e" anti,ipating Jieregaard@s own treatment of the matter* $and on a,,ount of this story" whi,h tells the e-perien,e of Abraham" who was to ill his son" the greatest fear and terror is i olently shown$ %et o' hoc illa historia! in Bua narratur preceptum fuisse 9'rae! ut iugularet filium suum! ,idetur esse ma=ime metum atBue moerorem afferens() .0 In an opposite sense" Aerroes e-pli,itly as,ribes to ,omedy the representation of ,itium %fault( from a perspe,tie in whi,h it does not appear as ,ompletely negatie) .2 .) It is in the ,onte-t of this ,on,eption of tragi, guilt and ,omi, guilt that the title of the #omedy a,am sicut post pre,aricationem humani generis Buili'et e=ordium sue locutionis incipit a' 1heu!1 rationa'ile est Buod ante Bui fuit inceperit a gaudio() .6 If we eep in mind the later eolution of =ante@s thought and pla,e these words in relation to the $material$ motiations in the letter to #angrande" these words signify that after the all! human language cannot 'e tragic 'efore the all! it cannot 'e comic ) At this point the ,riti,al problem of the #omedy@s title ,hanges" howeer" and must be reformulated in these terms* how ,ould =ante" until a ,ertain point" hae held a tragi, proe,t to be possibleD Bow" that is" ,ould there be tragedy after the +all and after #hrist@s passionD And" on,e again" how is it possible to oin the impossibility of tragedy to the possibility of ,omedy" the e=ordium a' heu of eery human dis,ourse to the $prosperous ending$ of ,omi, dis,ourseD
8885 PE6SON AND NAT96E I) Modern s,holars hae often repeated that a properly tragi, ,onfli,t is not possible in the sphere of the #hristian unierse) Jurt on +rit:" the author of the effi,ient ,hara,teri:ation of tragi, guilt as the separation of a sube,tiely attributable guilt from an obe,tiely
grasped hamartia" ,onsidered the #hristian ,on,eption of the world to be radi,ally antitragi," e-,luding as it does the possibility of su,h a separation) .& 7hile substantially ,orre,t" this statement is too peremptory) A ,on,eption of guilt that is ,ertainly tragi, is present in #hristianity through the do,trine of original sin and the distin,tion between natura and persona! natural guilt and personal guilt" whi,h the theologians elaborated and ustified) +or Adam@s sin was not only personal ? in him human nature itself sinned %$our nature" when it sinned totally in its seed$ ostra natura! Buando peccH tota D nel seme suoF(" .' thus falling away from the natural usti,e that had been assigned to it by God) .9 As natural and not personal guilt" as guilt that falls to eery man through his own origin % peccatum Buod BuisBue trahit cum natura in ipsa suo origine(" / original sin is a perfe,t e
of our first parent" whi,h was passed on by nature" su,h a personal good therefore ,annot be transferred to others) %Efflu=us salutis a Christo in homines non est per naturae propaginem! se per studium 'onae ,oluntatis Bua homo Christo adhaeret et sic Buod a Christo unusBuisBue conseBuitur est personale 'onum unde non deri,atur ad posteros! sicut peccatum primi parentis! Buod cum naturae propagine producitur )( /6 5he +all ,ontinued to hae penal effe,ts" moreoer" in ,on,upis,en,e itself" whi,h was the first ,onseo,o lo,e poetry that has so often di,ided modern critics! namely the appearance of this poetry as 'oth the transcription of a 'ase and sensual e=perience and the site of an e=alted soteriological itinerary% The attempt to o,ercome this tragic conflict through the proGect of a complete repossession of original Edenic Gustice! that is! in the e=perience of a simultaneously natural and personal 1perfection of lo,e1 +finamors0! constitutes the po2erful inheritance left 'y erotic poetry of the thirteenth century to modern estern culture% 3. rom this perspecti,e! $antes 1comic1 choice acBuires ne2 2eight% ith respect to the 1tragic1 proGect of the lo,e poets! the comic title of his poem constitutes a genuine 1categorical re,olution1 that once again carries lo,e from tragedy to comedy% 8n the theory of lo,e set forth 'y irgil in canto 65 of the Purgatorio" the eroti, e-perien,e ,eases to be a $tragi,$ ,onfli,t between personal inno,en,e and natural guilt and be,omes a ,omi, re,on,iliation of natural inno,en,e and personal guilt) ;n the one hand he ,an thus affirm that $the natural is always without error$ %lo naturale sempre sena errore() 0 ;n the other hand he ,an deny the ,laim of $the people who aer that loe is praiseworthy in itself$ and88in opposition to Guido #aal,anti@s theory" a,,ording to whi,h loe implied the impossibility of ,orre,t udgment %for di saluteJJgiudicar mantene(88,an ground the personal ,hara,ter of amorous responsibility in an $innate irtue" the fa,ulty that ,ounsels and that ought to hold the threshold of assent$ %innata la ,irt che consiglia! D e de lassenso de tener la soglia() 01 Hoe thus withdraws from the dar tragi, ba,ground of natural guilt to be,ome a personal e-perien,e attributable to the indiidual@s ar'itrium li'ertatis and" as su,h" ,apable of being e-piated in singulis)
/) 5his passage from natural" tragi, guilt to personal" ,omi, guilt is arti,ulated through =ante@s theory of shame" whi,h is deeloped in ,anto /1 of the !urgatorio) Bere =ante@s e-piation before his immersion in the waters of Hethe is a,,omplished through a pro,ess of $,omi,$ humiliation that has at its ,enter the e-perien,e of shame) If =ante had already felt shame before 3eatri,e and her seere apostrophe %$so great shame weighed on my brow$ tanta ,ergogna migra,H la fronteF(" 0. the purifying ne,essity of shame is ,onfirmed immediately after =ante ,onfesses his sin %$that you may now bear shame for your error$ perch mo ,ergogna porta D del tuo erroreF() 0/ 5he height of this $,omi,$ humiliation ,omes when 3eatri,e turns to =ante" whom shame has made similar to a little boy %$as ,hildren stand ashamed and dumb$
8(5 PE6SON AND OMED: 1) =ante@s de,ision to ,all his poem a $,omedy$ therefore represents an important moment in the semanti, history of two ,ategories by whi,h our ,ulture has brought to ,ons,iousness one of its $se,ret thoughts)$ 5he antitragi, turn that shows itself in this de,ision is not" howeer" a new and isolated eent) In a ,ertain sense" it represents the final a,t in a pro,ess to whi,h late anti
origin of the insisten,e with whi,h late8an,ient and medieal grammarians oppose ,omedy@s humiles personae to tragedy@s reges! duces" and heroes(" Epi,tetus identifies the essen,e of the tragi, situation88whi,h is e-emplified by ;edipus88in the ,onfusion between a,tor and ,hara,ter* 4emember that tragedies tae pla,e among ri,h people" ings" and tyrants) A poor man ,an tae part in them only as member of the ,horus) Jings begin with prosperity88$de,o rate the pala,eK$88but then" in the third or fourth a,t" they say" $Alas" #itero" why did you re,eie meD$ Slae" where are the ,rowns and the diademsD our bodyguards no longer obey youD 7hen you meet one of these people" remember that you are meeting a tragi, hero88not an a,tor but ;edipus himself) 2. 5he wise man is instead the one who" a,,epting without dis,ussion whateer $mas$ has been assigned to him by fate" represents his part and thereby refuses to identify with it) +rom this perspe,tie" the term prosopon ,hanges meaning and" in ,ontrast to $person$ in the theatri,al sense" begins to designate man@s $moral personality"$ the power that furnishes ,riteria for a,tion and that remains superior to all the possible a,ts it ,an produ,e) ;n the one hand" $person$ is thus the theatri,al $mas$? on the other" it refers to the emerging notion of moral personality" a notion to whi,h a properly uridi,al ,on,ept of the person is soon added) 5his uridi,al personality is already to be found in a passage of 5heophilus@s paraphrase of ustinian@s Institutions" where we read that $insofar as they hae no person aprosopoi ontesF" serants are ,hara,teri:ed *hara*teriontai F by the master@s person)$ It is on the basis of the double semanti, heredity of the term $person"$ whi,h thus signifies both $mas$ and uridi,o8moral $personality"$ that the theologi,o8 metaphysi,al notion of person is formed in the wor of the #hur,h +athers) 5his ambiguity is ,aptured in its undiided" originary ,oheren,e in 3oethius Contra Eutychen% Aoethius is still perfectly conscious of the theatrical meaning of the term persona! yet he see*s to con,ert it into a philosophical category 'y ma*ing it the eBui,alent of the (ree* hypostasis in the sense of naturae rationa'ilis indi,idua su'stantia +the indi,idual su'stance of a rational nature0% 8n a passage in 2hich the importance of tragedy and comedy for the status of the person has its originary legitimacy! the difficulty of this crucial semantic change comes to light as a 1lac* of 2ords1: The 2ord 1person1 seems to 'e 'orro2ed from a different source! namely from the mas*s NpersonaeO 2hich in comedies and tragedies are used to represent the people concerned% % % % The (ree*s! too! call these mas*s prosopa from the fact that they are placed o,er the face and conceal the countenance in front of the eyes: para tou pros tous horas tithesthai +from 'eing put up against the face0% Aut since! as 2e ha,e said! it 2as 'y the mas*s that they put on that actors represented the indi,idual people concerned in a tragedy or comedyJJ)ecu'a or Medea or Simo or Chremes!JJso also of all other men 2ho could 'e clearly recognied 'y their appearance the Latins used the name persona! the (ree*s prosopa% Aut the (ree*s far more clearly called the in diidual subsisten,e of a rational nature by the name hypostasis" while we through want of appropriate words hae ept the name handed down to us" ,alling that persona whi,h they ,all hypostasis) 2/ et een for 3oethius" the notion of persona always refers to a natura that is its subie,ta and without whi,h it ,annot subsist) 20 5he modern notion of person as inalienable sube,t of nowledge and morality does not e-ist in medieal ,ulture" whi,h still dete,ts the originary theatri,al sonority of the term and sees in it the set of indiidual properties that are added to human nature@s simpli,itas) +or only in Adam %and in #hrist( did nature and person ,oin,ide perfe,tly and ,ould a personal sin ,ontaminate all of human nature) After the +all" person and nature remain88tragi,ally or ,omi,ally88diided and will ,oin,ide again only in the $last day$ of the resurre,tion of the flesh) And it is pre,isely be,ause nature and person do not ,oin,ide in the ,reature that the #hur,h +athers" taing up an an,ient Stoi, metaphor" ,an iew human life as a fabula" a ,omoedia or tragoedia mondana) $+or if our age were to ,on,eie a propheti, spirit"$ we read in ohn of Salisbury@s Policraticus" $it would be ery well said that ,omedy is human life on earth" where eeryone" haing forgotten himself" e-presses a foreign person$ % 9t si nostra tempora propheticus spiritus
concepisset! dicetur egregie Buia Comoedia est ,ita hominis super terram! u'i BuisBue sui o'litus! personam e=primit alienum() .) 5he ,omi, title of =ante@s poem must also be situated in this ,onte-t) Bere the antitragi, distan,e between a,tor and $person$ be,omes a $,omi,$ diision between human nature %whi,h is inno,ent( and person %whi,h is guilty() 5he duality between =ante the histori,al indiidual and =ante the man in general" whose grammati,al tra,e Singleton found in the opposition between $nostra ,ia$ and $mi ritro,ai $ at the beginning of the poem %and for whi,h Gianfran,o #ontini sees an institutional san,tion in the opposition of the literal and allegori,al senses(" a,tually has its foundation in the disun,tion between natural inno,en,e and personal responsibility that lies at the ,enter of =ante@s $,omi,$ ,on ,eption) +ar from emerging fully armed from the mind of 7estern man" the modern ,on,ept of person was in fa,t formed through a lengthy pro,ess to whi,h the ,omedy>tragedy opposition was ,losely related) %+rom this point of iew" it ,an een be said that the moral person8sube,t of modern ,ulture is nothing but a deelopment of the $tragi,$ attitude of the a,tor" who fully identifies with his own $mas)$ 5his is why in modern ,ulture" while ,omedy88whi,h refused identifi,ation with the prosopon all the more be,ause it had at its ,enter the figure of the serant" that is" the aprosopos par e-,ellen,e88has ,onsered its mas" tragedy has instead been ne,essarily obliged to do away with it altogether)( 5he one who a,,omplishes the oyage of the #omedy is not a sube,t or an I in the modern sense of the word but" rather" simultaneously a person %the sinner ,alled =ante( and human nature %a,,ording to 3oethius@s definition" the specificato proprietas that is su'iecta to this person() And it is this unity8duality of nature and person that founds the spe,ifi,ity of the protagonist@s status in the #omedy with respe,t to that of other medieal allegori,al poems" from Alain de Hille $e planctu naturae to the #oman de la rose% or allegory! far from truly 'eing a 1personification!1 instead e=presses precisely the impossi'ility of the person: it is the cipher through 2hich a nature that has 'een petrified 'y guilt gi,es ,oice to its 1lament1 and see*s! 2ithout success! to o,ercome tragic guilt through personal destiny% << 8n this sense! the protagonist of the Comedy is the first 1person1 of modern literature% Aut that this person ,ie2s himself as a comic character rather than as a tragic hero is certainly not a meaningless fact% That the name of $ante! the e=emplary mar* of a person! 2as 1of necessity registered1 +registrato di necessit"0
Italian ,ulture remained more faithful than any other to the antitragi, inheritan,e of the late8an,ient world" this is be,ause" at the beginning of the fourteenth ,entury" a +lorentine poet de,ided to abandon the tragi, ,laim to personal inno,en,e in the name of the ,reature@s natural inno,en,e" leaing behind perfe,t Edeni, loe for the sae of ,omi,ally diided human loe" morality@s inalienable person for law@s $foreign person"$ and the ite@s $lofty soaring$ %altissime rote( $oer things that are totally base$ for the sparrow@s $low flight$ %,olare 'asso() 2' 5he fier,e mas left by a superfi,ial hagiography to a tradition that almost immediately forgot the reasons for the #omedy@s title is" in this sense" a ,omi, mas* it is that of $our ,omedian$ %comicus noster (" as +ilippo Cillani defines him" lu,idly" at the beginning of his biography)
§ " orn# From Anatom! to Poetics a'ulari paulisper lu'et! sed e= re) 88 Angelo !oli:iano
85 H8STO68A 5wo thirteenth8,entury" possibly Italian manus,ripts ,ontain the following ra:o* 4aimon de =ufort and Hord 5ur, Male, were two nights from uer,y who ,omposed the sirentes about the lady ,alled Milday n@Aia" the one who said to the night that she would not loe him if he did not corn her in the arse) And here are written the sirentes) 1 % 4aimons de =ufort eN 5ur, Male,si foron du ca,allier de Caersi Bue feiren los sir,entes de la domna Bue ac nom ma domna n9ia! aBuella Bue dis al ca,alier de Cornil Buella no lamaria si el no la corna,a el cul ) Et aBui son escrit los sir,entes)( In the two sirentes that follow" howeer" as in Arnaut =aniel@s tauter poem" whi,h interenes in the gap" the term designating the obe,t of the $,ornar$ is not $,ul$ %$arse$( but $,orn)$ . Moreoer" a,,ording to a pre,ious intention that ,hara,teri:es the impassable formalism of the poet whom =ante ,alled $the better ,raftsman$ %il miglior fabbro(" ,orn is ins,ribed here at the ,enter of a ,onstellation of obs,ure and rare words that hae furnished philologists with the o,,asion for somewhat uninspiring interpretatie e-er,ises) 5o summari:e" let us open the dossier) Ugo #annello" 1''/* Cornar " meaning $to use sodomiti,ally$ in the sense at issue here" and thus corn for $bottom"$ are registered by neither the He-i,on nor the Glossary) 3ut the metaphor of corn as $bottom$ was ,ommon" as shown by 3arbri,,ia in =ante 8nferno! QQ8 " 101" who made del cul trom'etta) And there is the ,ommentary to our passage in 4) de =ufort@s se,ond sirentes" whi,h is all too ,lear* $Se el no la corna,a en cul )$ / 4) Haaud" 191* Corn* 4ayn) distinguishes corn" II" 0'2" $,ot" ,larion"$ from corn" II" 0'6" $horn" ,orner" angle" ,anal" pipe)$ HOy ,ombines all these senses in the same arti,le" I" /69" and adds $behind" anus"$ following A) =an) here and tur, Male, %or rather 4aimon de =ufort" a,,ording to #anello and me ) ) )() In this whole pie,e" the anus is ,ompared to a trumpet" a ,larion" or a horn)$ ) ) ) In erse 6 cornar has its ordinary sense %,f) 4)" II" 0'6( of $to sound a horn or a trumpet)$ 0 Gianluigi 5oa" 196* Cornar * #anello@s fan,iful interpretation %p) 1'&(" $to use sodomiti,ally"$ was ,orre,ted by Haaud" who proposed $to sound a horn or a trumpet"$ hen,e $to blow"$ a meaning dedu,ed from the ordinary sense of ,orn %,f) S7" I" /6'" whi,h unites the words in Le=% 88 " 0'2* cor! clarion and in II" 0'6* corne! coin! ancle! anal! tuyeau" with the additional sense of anus" bottom() Haaud" taing away the drama of #anello@s interpretation" has best understood the ,omi, and realisti, spirit of Arnaut@s pice) ;n corn %P cul ( there are no more doubts after the reading of IJ and
the allusions in /9&" I" 12816" ./8.0 and 00&" 1" II" 10" 0.) It seems that it is therefore a matter of an obs,ene $hole$ e-er,ise that has nothing to do with pra,ti,es ,ontrary to nature) 2 Mauri:io !erugi" 19&'* 7e are ery far from resus,itating the improbable sodomiti,al interpretation proposed by #anello? moreoer" with all good will and imagination" we ,annot su,,eed in understanding what this $hole e-er,ise$ ,onsists in and how" in short" to represent it ,on,retely %honni soit Bui mal y pense() After ,lose e-amination of the matter" and assuming that the men %and women( of the time were not substantially different from those of today with regard either to their physi,al stru,ture" their se-ual attitudes or the behaior ineitably ,onne,ted to those attitudes" we beliee that all the s,holars from #anello onward were mistaen as to the part of the body at issue in the re
Bue! siRl ,engues damon lo rais! totRll echauferaRl col eRl cais +or we do not see how a rais ,ould threaten amon the night of #ornhil" who is supposedly busy with a ,litoris) It is" in fa,t" the ,ase that all feminine traucs are une
885 A&&E7O6: 5he Minnesnger used the term Uorn to signify $an una,,ompanied erse that is at the ,enter of a strophe" yet rhymes with the ,orresponding member of the following strophes)$ 9 5he phenomenon is not unnown* it is the partially unrelated rhyme" whi,h the !roenLals ,all rimestrampa or dissolut and whi,h =ante" in $e ,ulgari eloBuentia %II" QIII" 2(" terms cla,is %$5here are some" indeed" who do not always rhyme within a single stan:a" but repeat them or rhyme them in later stan:as$ Sunt etenim Buidam Bui non omnes BuandoBue desinentias carminum rithimantur in eadem stantia! sed easdem repetunt! si,e rithimantur! in aliisF() 1 Matthias He-er has a ,lear understanding of the fun,tion of Uorn in strophi, stru,ture" writing that $the Meistersinger understood UVrner to be the ,onne,tion between two strophes through whi,h a erse of the one rhymed with a erse of the other)$ 11 3ut in most German di,tionaries" the term is listed among the senses of Uorn as $grain"$ su,h that it be,omes wholly ine-pli,able) Moreoer" although the deriation of this metri,al institution of the troubadour@s te,hni,al poeti,s is ,ertain" 1. the ;ld ;,,itan word corn is not listed in any le-i,on as haing this meaning" and therefore no do,umentation e-ists to support the idea that the 4oman,e poets might hae borrowed their term from the German) At least this was the situation before Maria #areri" woring on her edition of troubadour songboo B" twi,e ,ame upon a gloss that" in order to mar a missing erse" noted the following* aici manca us corNnOs %cors with an elongation mar on the $o"$ whi,h #areri reads as ,orns() $#ors"$ the editor writes" surely means $erse"$ metri,al unit) It is un,lear whether the word ,orresponds etymologi,ally to cursus or to cornus) ) ) ) It should be noted that in both this ,ase and that mared in the =b. gloss ,on,erning Guiraut de #alanso@s song %there in the form 8R cors 8R faill (" the erse missing in B is a four8syllable one that rhymes with the immediately following erse %also a four8syllable erse in Arn=an" but a si-8syllable erse in Gr#al() It is therefore possible that the term corNnOs designates a spe,ial ind of erse) 1/
%It should also be noted" for the sae of a,,ura,y" that in the Arnaut song at issue the two four8syllable erses" whi,h are not te,hni,ally UVrner " metastrophi,ally re,all the two ,orresponding erses in the pre,eding co'la)( 5he B s,ribe is therefore familiar with an unnown meaning of ,orn" one that refers not to feminine but rather to poeti, anatomy and that" from now on" will hae to be listed among the meanings registered in the releant entry in Emil Hey Petit dictionnaire pro,enKalJ franKais% -4 That this is not a matter of a forgetta'le hapa= is immediately confirmed 'y ) itself% 8n the first ,erse of the tornada of 1Lauramara!1 ) records not the usual ait es lacort D Buel cor remir +2hich La,aud translates as 1this accord is concluded1 and Perugi renders as 1the accord has 'een stipulated10! 'ut rather aits es lo cors Buel cor remir! that is! 1the ,erse is made1 +or! 'y synecdoche! 1the poem is made10% (i,en the ,erses location in the tornada! the sense of this ,ersion is far more satisfying +the proof is that Euse'i himself ends 'y interpreting acort as 1rhyme1: 1the rhymes are o,er10% +9s for the 2riting of cor or cors for corn! 2ith the more or less intentional forgetting of the a''re,iation mar*! Euse'i compares it 2ith other instances of the same *ind in the manuscripts! such as! among others! precisely ,% 47 of our sir,entes%0 -< 8t is unnecessary to underline the inno,ati,eness of this le=ical feature 2ith respect to the 2hole corpus of courtly lyric poetry% The homophonic play of cors and cor! 2hich is so important for the trou'adours +as is the alliteration cuerDcors in the trou,res0! turns out to 'e complicated 'y a third term that 'rings in a selfJreferential element! in 2hich the anatomy of the 'ody of lo,e has a strict correlate in the poems metrical structure% That the poem could 'e assimilated to a 'ody in the conte=t of courtly ,erse is! moreo,er!
implicit 'oth in the anatomical metaphors that proliferate in metrical terminology +the stanas 1feet!1 1face!1 and 1tail1 the capcaudadas 1headJtail1 the 1crippled1 +estrampa0 rhyme La'orintuss $stoma,h$ erses( and in the ebody paradigm? and it is also eident in the Minnesnger! 2ho e,en use the 2ord Leiche +1corpse10 to name their supreme poetic institution% e shall gi,e only three e=amples! among the many possi'le passages found in 9rnaut $aniels 2or* alone% 8n 1Canso doJill1 it 2ill 'e necessary to correct ,erse <4! so that it reads not mos Gois 'ut rather! as is found in manuscripts 8U>SSg! per Bue mos cors +that is! corNnOs0 capduelha! 1my ,erse reaches the summit1 +this is indirectly confirmed 'y #! 2hich has mos chans0% 9nalogously! in Q8! 6
-5
)ere the firm 2ill penetrates not into the lo,ers heart +2hoe,er is familiar 2ith the central function of the heart in medie,al psychophysiology 2ould e=pect the 2ill to depart from it as from its sour,e(" but into the poem) Moreoer" here we then find a serious appearan,e of the 'ecsDcorn appro-imation that is so ,hara,teristi, of the sirentes) And if a little later" in erses / and /." what would neer leae the woman is not the heart but the poem" then Eusebi@s e-,ellent ,one,ture %a,,ording to whi,h $the real sube,t of the entry into the cam'ra is song$* son % % % Buapres dins cam'ra intra( 19 would be finally ,onfirmed) As to corn@s etymologi,al origin" there is no reason to do away with cursus? it suffi,es to relate it to one of corn@s meanings that is most well do,umented in the di,tionaries* $tip"$ @e-tremity"$ $,orner"$ $angle)$ . ust as $erse$ draws its name from the point at whi,h it is deployed %,ersus" whi,h deries from ,erto" an origin with whi,h the Leys damors is perfe,tly familiar* girar or ,irar (" .1 so ,orn indi,ates the last part of a erse" whi,h ,arries the unrelated rhyme)
8885 T6OPO&O7: 5he legitima,y of a hypothesis must be erified aboe all through its fun,tion in spe,ifi, ,onte-ts) If we return" therefore" to Arnaut@s sirentes" the whole dispute surrounding Ayna@s corn is displa,ed from its obs,ene literal sense to a
pran into a poeti,
A,,ording to the purest troubadour intention" the sirentes@s obs,ene and playful theme is thus perfe,tly reunited with that grae $theorem of the predominan,e of the harmoni, oer the melodi,$ by whi,h #ontini" following =ante" grasped Arnaut@s poeti,s) .' 5he theorem is seere insofar as it pla,es at the ,enter of poeti, ,omposition a ,anon that is" in the e-treme ,ase" per,eptible only in writing and that thereby prepared the way for the eent that was soon to mar the history of the European lyri,* the poeti, te-t@s definitie brea with song %that is" with the element =ante ,alled melos() +or if it is true that in ;,,itan literature we ,an assume a ,orresponden,e between strophi, diision" whi,h is mared by regular rhymes" and melodi, diision" it is ust as ,ertain that the corn or unrelated rhyme signals a point of rupture in this ,orresponden,e) And the new te,hni
8(5 ANA7O7: ;nly o,,asionally in modern wors on metri,al stru,tures is rigorous des,ription a,,ompanied by an ade
Enambment thus themati,ally mars the $rupture$ // between metri,al pause and synta,ti,al pause that %as Georges Hote@s analyses of paua suspensi,a and paua plana demonstrate( /0 also ,hara,teri:es ,aesura and rhyme" if to a minor degree) 7hat is rhyme" if not a disun,tion between semioti, eent %the repetition of sounds( and semanti, eent" su,h that the mind sear,hes for an analogy of sense in the ery pla,e where" disen,hanted" it ,an find only a formal ,orresponden,eD %5he am Buemadmodum cantio est gremium totius sententiae! sic stantia totam artem ingremiat nee licet aliBuid artis seBuenti'us adrogare! sed solam artem antecedentis induere)( /& =ante thus ,on,eies of the stru,ture of the canone as founded on the relation between an essentially semanti," global unit and essentially metri,al" partial units) It is remarable that he e-presses this ,ontrast pre,isely through a bodily image* the feminine bosom" womb" or lap" with the impli,it assimilation %suggested again a little later" de ipso corpore( /' of the canone to a body ,onstituted by metri,al organs %and the erb ingremiare" $to @enlap@ or to re,eie in the bosom" womb" or lap"$ ,an" lie the ,orresponding erb insinuare" hae an e
and another that" inersely" aims to mae sound and sense ,oin,ide? one that attempts to distinguish the two wombs with pre,ision" and another that wants to render the two absolutely indistin,t) 5he e-treme ,ase is glossolalia" in whi,h sense and sound ,annot be told apart* 7illiam IQ@s $babariol" babarial" babarian"$ or emrod 1#aphel may amch a'W almW!1 both $before or beyond$ /9 meaningful dis,ourse)
(5 SE9 SENS9S M:ST89S 5he senten,e in whi,h =ante eoes the unrelated rhyme in $e ,ulgari eloBuentia! 2hich 2e emphasied a'o,e! must 'e considered in this light% )ere $ante almost underlines +some2hat disdainfully0 the importance of the term! 'ut 2ithout dra2ing on the trou'adour tradition +he does not mention the instances of unrelated rhymes familiar to him in 9rnaut! for e=ample0% 8nstead he refers to an other2ise un*no2n (ottus of Mantua +2hich should perhaps 'e read not as an impro'a'le name 'ut as 1a (erman from Mantua!1 that is! as a reference not to a Minnesnger 'ut to a &e2! as has 'een indicated to me 'y the su'tlest scholar of thirteenthcentury 8talian Ua''alists! Moshe 8del! on the 'asis of the common eBuation of 9lemano 2ith 9sh*enai*0% ith his usual acumen! (% (orni has noted the $olce Stil >o,o poets characteristic use of unrelated rhymes! 2hich (uinielli! in the sonnet 1Caro padre mio!1 seems e=plicitly to oppose! as a 2ea* tie! to rhyme as the 1canonic *not1 of the poetic composition% 4? +8t is significant that $antes negati,e archetype! (uittone! ta*es the greatest care to a,oid unrelated rhymes%0 Ueeping in mind the dignity assigned to the *eyJ,erse +or nail,erse0 in the economy of courtly poetics may allo2 for a less nai,e +or at least less contradictory0 reading of $antes summary definition of the $olce Stil >o,o in canto QQ8 of Purgatorio% The tri,ial reading of this definition romantically distorts $antes theme 'y interpreting it as suggesting a lin* 'et2een sense and sound! te=t and dictation! that is closer than the one in (uittone +this is the mythological 1sincerity of e=pression1 scorned 'y Contini0% Such a reading is pro,en false 'y! among other te=ts! $antes theory of poetic enunciation! 2hich he de,elops in chapters 3 and 4 of Aoo* 888 of the Con,i,io and 2hich must no2 'e returned to its proper programmatic status% )ere $ante defines the poetic e,ent not by a ,onergen,e but rather by a diergen,e between intelle,t and language) 5his diergen,e gies rise to a double $ineffableness$ %ineffa'ilitade(" in whi,h the intelle,t ,annot grasp %$end$( what language says and in whi,h language does not $,ompletely follow$ what the intelle,t ,omprehends* +or in speaing of her my thoughts many times desired to ,on,lude things about her whi,h I ,ould not understand" and I was so bewildered that outwardly I seemed almost beside myself) ) ) ) 5his is one ineffable aspe,t of what I hae taen as my theme? and" subse
spee,h" as in those things nown by inention" then the intelle,t e-,eeds spee,h" and many things are understood that ,annot be spoen) %8n Bui'usdam locutio causat intellectum! sicut in his Buae per disciplina discuntur: unde contingit Buod intellectus addiscens non per tingit ad ,irtutem locutionis et tunc potest loBui ea Buae audit! sed non intelligit% % % % ;uandoBue autem intellectus est causa locutionis! sicut in his Buae per in,entionem sciuntur inde in his intellectus locutionem e=cedit! et multa intelligantur Buae proferri non ,alent )( %I Sent%" d) /&( Bere the philosopher ,learly lo,ates the pro,ess of learning in a double disun,tion between the intelle,t and spee,h in whi,h language e-,eeds the intelle,t %speaing without understanding( and the intelle,t trans,ends language %understanding without speaing() 7hile 5homas" howeer" limits himself to opposing two distin,t and in eery sense separate modes of learning %learning by dis,ipline and learning by inention(" =ante@s genius ,onsists in his haing transformed the two into a double but neertheless syn,hronous moement traersing the poeti, a,t" in whi,h inention is inerted into dis,ipline %into listening( and dis,ipline is inerted into inention" so to spea by irtue of its own insuffi,ien,y) 7hat follows is neither an ana,hronisti, poeti,s of the intimate ,onun,tion of sound and sense" spee,h and understanding" nor a flat and e
9nd is this not precisely 2hat happens in e,ery genuine poetic enunciation! in 2hich languages mo,ement to2ard sense is as if tra,ersed 'y another discourse! one mo,ing from comprehension to sound! 2ithout either of the t2o e,er reaching its destination! the one to rest in prose and the other in pure soundX 8nstead! in a decisi,e e=change! it is as if! ha,ing met each other! each of the t2o mo,ements then follo2ed the others trac*s! such that language found itself led 'ac* in the end to language! and comprehension to comprehension% This in,erted chiasmJJthis and nothing elseJJis 2hat 2e call poetry% This chiasm is! 'eyond e,ery ,agueness! poetry crossing 2ith thought! the thin*ing essence of poetry and the poeticiing essence of thought% And in this ,rossing %in whi,h" as at eery ,rossroads" ,atastrophe is always possible( it is the $nail$ %or $ey$( that ,onstitutes the me,hanism of e-,hange" ust as it is the ,orn that mars the tra,e of this e-,hange in the delirious body of Ayna)
(85 EP8&O79E 3ut who is Ayna" this being made of both words and sound" whom we hae e-plored in sear,hing after the limit of the anatomy of loeD Sharp" liely" and almost ,haste in her shamelessness" she ,ertainly appears as an inerted figure of the troubadour@s domna genser Bue no say dir " and of the 1Lady 8ntelligence1 that the loe poets present as both the origin and the destiny of their song) As su,h" she ,alls to mind the $stammering woman$ %femmina 'al'a( of Purgatorio" QIQ" &812" the babbling siren whose appearan,e gies rise to ust as inde,ent an e-hibition and in whom ,riti,s hae rightly seen a figure of $non8song)$ 02 Bere" howeer" een the inersion is ,ompli,ated and" so to spea" in turn inerted) 7e beliee that we hae identified the ar,hetype in a passage of Eriugena@s glosses on Martianus #apella" a te-t that was ,ertainly not unnown to ,ourtly ,ulture) Bere we read" with referen,e to one of the Muses@ names* AIA" intelle,t) +or IA is intelle,t" hen,e the e-pression ;S) $A$ signifies many things for the Grees) Sometimes it denotes a negation? sometimes it denotes an addition" as in this name AIA* here $A$ in,reases its sense) %AIA" intelligentia) IA enim intelligentia" ab eo
§ $ T%e Dream of &anguage To 7io4anni Po;;i and arlo Dionisotti< 2%o leared t%e 2a! for E4er! 6eading of Polifilo
8 5he obserations that follow see to lo,ate a famous yet littleread wor in the site that is proper to a reading and" in so doing" to return it to a dimension in whi,h its material ,ontent and its truth ,ontent %or" we ,ould also say" taing up the medieal theory of the many senses of S,ripture" its literal sense and its allegori,o8moral sense( ,oin,ide) If it is true that eery reading of a wor must ne,essarily re,on with the growing distan,e between different leels of meaning that is ,aused by time" it is also true that a genuine reading taes pla,es only at the point at whi,h the wor@s liing unity" first present in the original draft" is on,e again re,omposed) In the ,ase of the anonymous in,unabulum printed in Ceni,e in 1099 that is our sube,t here" )ypnerotomachia Poliphili " 1 any attempt to assume this tas must ,onfront a number of parti,ular problems) +irst there are the diffi,ulties posed by a wor that is oer 2 years old and that ,omes from a milieu88fifteenth8,entury humanism88that has neer su,,eeded in gaining a modern publi,) More de,isie is the fa,t that the in,unabulum" ,losed in its perfe,t Aldine a,et" seems to be ,omposed of elements so diergent as to mae it appear from the beginning a dead spe,imen without pre,edent or des,endants" a ind of emblem in whi,h88to use the terminology of those allegori,al treatises that often too their inspira tion from it88the ingenious will of the author irreo,ably separated and silen,ed $soul$ and $body)$ Een the beautiful illustrations that ,ontributed to the boo@s good fortune add to this hieroglyphi, and generally tomblie impression) And yet een if it ,ertainly registered the problem of death" )ypnerotomachia was not a simple" pedanti, e-er,ise substantially foreign to the liing part of the Italian literary tradition) 4ather" it e-pressed in an e-emplary fashion the ,risis of one of the deepest intentions of the Italian tradition) !erhaps the philologi,al obsession and the e-a,erbated loe of language that ,hara,teri:e fifteenth8,entury humanism and the bilingualism that is at issue in it %and whi,h is present in Italian literature" in different forms" from one end to the other( ,on,eal a problem that is more essential than we are a,,ustomed to thin) 5he modest motto that !oli:iano attributed to Lamia@s prologue % grammaticus! non philosophus(" and that a te-t ,lose to those we are ,on,erned with here formulates as the fear of appearing as a $bad philosopher$ rather than a ,ommentator %ne philosophaster magis ,ideatur Buam commentator (" therefore suggests that the more a wor seems to ,on,entrate on philologi,al and linguisti, problems" the denser its truth ,ontent may be) It is perhaps pre,isely here that the ,riti, must not fear the ris of thought" and that the ,ommentator" in turn" must not shy away from appearing as a $bad philosopher)$
88 5he ne,essary introdu,tion to eery reading of !olifilo is ,onstituted by analysis of its language) 5he effe,t of estrangement that its language produ,es so disorients the reader that he literally does not now what language he is reading" whether it is Hatin" the erna,ular" or a third idiom88perhaps the one that a si-teenth,entury parody early on defines pre,isely as the lingua poliphylesca) It is not simply a matter of an effe,t due to the te-t@s temporal distan,e from us) 5he awareness of this effe,t was so ,entral to the author and the first readers of the boo that we find it ,learly stated in the margins of the boo itself) In the Hatin letter of Heonardo #rasso that opens the te-t" we read* $5he one wonderful thing about it is that while it speas in the language of our ,ountry" ,onsiderable wor is re
Modern s,holars hae analy:ed !olifilo@s language" albeit not e-haustiely) 5he results to whi,h they were led ,onfirm what appears to be the ,ase at first glan,e* the boo@s language is a monstrous unicum in whi,h a Hatin le-i,on is igorously grafted onto the erna,ular language at the wor@s foundation) In the words of one s,holar who too e-emplary ,are in studying )ypnerotomachia" the te-t is $an attempt to resole the humanisti, debate oer Hatin and erna,ular with a pra,ti,al formula" presering the phonologi,al and morphologi,al reality of one and the le-i,al nobility of the other)$ . It is not simply a matter of the intrusion of purely Hatin %and at times Gree( words into the erna,ular le-i,on" a,,ording to a pro,ess of growth that ,ertainly ,hara,teri:ed the history of the erna,ular in the fifteenth ,entury) 4ather" here innumerable new linguisti, formations are made through the separate transposition of Hatin roots and suffi-es" whi,h lend life to words that are grammati,ally possible but that in reality neer e-isted" and whose life remains mainly ,onfined to their single appearan,e in !olifilo@s dream) et the sense of the operation performed on the le-i,al element is not fully understood if it is not pla,ed in relation to the parti,ular grammati,al and synta,ti,al stru,ture of the wor@s prose) If )ypnerotomachia@s prose" on the one hand" ,aptures the long and ,omplesynta- of 3o,,a,,io@s style" on the other it ,ompli,ates and burdens that synta- with a series of delays and anomalies / that ultimately leae the le-i,al element ,learly stranded" appearing all the more alien in the dis,ursie ,onte-t of the te-t@s propositions) An intent of this ind88and" moreoer" one whi,h is ,ons,iously ,arried out88has been noted in MallarmO" 0 where the infinite synta,ti,al ,ompli,ation of the poet@s writing maes words stand out in their isolation while their semanti, alues are suspended in what MallarmO ,alled an isolement de la parole) 5hus" MallarmO writes" words" held ba, in $ibratile suspension"$ are per,eied by the mind independent of their ,onte-tual synta,ti,al ,onne,tion" in a ind of pure self8referential mirroring* 7ords rise up unaided and in e,stasy? many a fa,et reeals its infinite rarity and is pre,ious to our mind) +or our mind is the ,enter of this hesitan,y and os,illation? it sees the words not in their usual order" but in proe,tion %lie the walls of a ,ae(" so long as that mobility whi,h is their prin,iple lies on" that part of spee,h whi,h is not spoen) 2 %Hes mots" d@eu- mTmes" s@e-altent mainte fa,ette re,onnue la plus rare ou alant pour l@esprit" ,entre de suspens ibratoire?
unsaid and" neertheless" to be present in it* e-a,tly as in a dream" or in an a,rosti," ust as the names of both the author and the beloed are se,retly hidden in latine in the initials of eery ,hapter* Poliam frater ranciscus Columna perama,it )
888 5hese obserations on language must now guide us in the reading of )ypnerotomachia" if a wor@s material ,ontent ,annot be separated from its truth ,ontent and the language in whi,h a wor is written ,annot be irreleant to the wor@s material ,ontent) 5he boo is the story of a dream" and at the ,enter of this dream lies the figure of a woman" !olia) 5he male protagonist@s loe for !olia is so unusual and so obsessie that he has no reality other than that ,on,ealed in the name !olifilo* !olia@s loer) 5he whole matter ,an be des,ribed as a $oyage into the amorous flames of !olia$ % I" 11/() 7ho is !oliaD Answers to this
!olia" the obe,t of the author@s amorous
8( B) 7) Jlein has already re,onstru,ted the birth of the ,on,ept of dead language in humanism) & Bere it suffi,es to re,all that it was Horen:o de@ Medi,i who" in the 1Commento sopra alcuni de suoi sonetti1 +1Comment on Some of )is Sonnets10" whi,h antedates the printing of )ypnerotomachia by about fifteen years" first attempted to ,ompare the deelopment of a language to that of a liing organism" establishing a parallelism between the ages of man and those of language) $5he ,hildhood of this language until now ,an be said to be ery great" sin,e it is be,oming more and more elegant and pleasant) And it might attain een greater perfe,tion in its youth and adulthood)$ ;nly a little later" after speaing of the death of the woman to whom the sonnets are dedi,ated" Horen:o states the prin,iple %whi,h was later" in a famous dialogue by Car,hi" to be te-tually transferred to language( a,,ording to whi,h $it is do,trine among good philosophers that the ,orruption of one thing is the ,reation of another)$ Many years before" in a te-t that ,onstitutes the first history of Hatin literature" Si,,o !olenton Scriptorum illustrium latinae linJguae li'ri Q888 guae libri QCIII" the e
Many years later" when the humanist dis,ussion" starting with 3embo" too the form of a $debate about language$ %Buestione della lingua( and a ,ontrast between erna,ular humanism and Hatin humanism" it would be pre,isely the idea of the death of language88 an idea originally forged for the sae of indi,ating Hatin88that would furnish arms to the proponents of the erna,ular) In Sperone Speroni $ialogo delle lingue %whi,h dates from 120." thus more than 0 years after )ypnerotomachia and almost . years after Prose della ,olgar lingua(" the growth and death of Hatin are a natural phenomenon" ,omparable to the ital ,y,le of a plant* $+or this is the will of nature" who has de,ided that this tree soon be born" flower" and bear fruit" and that another soon grow old and die)$ 5he erna,ular" by ,ontrast" is a $irgin$ who has not yet fully flowered* $I tell you that this modern language" howeer old it is" is still
( 5o measure the noelty of the idea of Hatin as a dead language" it is ne,essary to stress the brea that it mared with respe,t to fourteenth8,entury ideas) In =ante Con,i,io and $e ,ulgari eloBuentia! the perisha'le and dead language par e=cellence is still the ,ernacular! 2hile Latin is 1perpetual and incorrupti'le%1 8nsofar as it is the lingua grammatica! Latin is! for $ante! 2hat puts an end to the mortality of languages% The fact of the matter is that $antes 'ilingualism and the 'ilingualism of the fifteenth and si=teenth centuries in no 2ay refer to the same phenomenon% The first corresponds to the opposition not so much 'et2een t2o languages as 'et2een t2o different e=periences of language! 2hich $ante calls the mother tongue and the grammatical language% The ,ernacular is an a'solutely primordial and immediate e=perience of speech +1first speech1 Nprima locutioO N $e ,ulgari eloBuentia! 8! 6! 6-O 1Nit isO one and only in the mind that
2hich is alone and first in the 2hole mind1 Nuno e solo prima nella mente Buello che solo prima in tutta la menteO N Con,i,io! 8! Q888!
of the earlier distin,tion) +or the essential bilingualism of human spee,h is now resoled through a dia,hroni, separation by whi,h one language is pushed ba,ward" as $dead"$ prior to $liing$ language) et the language that thus dies88Hatin88is not =ante@s imperishable grammati,al language but rather a mother tongue of a new ind" whi,h is already the lingua matri= of seenteenth8,entury philology88the original language from whi,h other languages derie and whose death renders possible the intelligibility and grammati,ality of other languages) ;nly the appearan,e of Hatin as a dead language allowed the erna,ular to be transformed into a grammati,al language) And it was pre,isely the idea of a dead language that" in the hands of 4omanti, linguisti,s" made possible the birth of the modern s,ien,e of language) +or what is Indo8European88whose re,onstru,tion mared the ,ulmination of modern ,omparatie grammar8if not the idea of a dead language that is always ne,essarily presupposed for eery language and that" present pre,isely in being dead" sustains the systemati, inship and intelligibility of languagesD +rom this point of iew" it ,an be said that the first generations of humanism" whi,h passionately e-perien,ed the ,orruption and rebirth of Hatin" transferred to Hatin pre,isely the e-perien,e of language that had originally been the e-perien,e of the erna,ular) Hatin thus rose up again in humanism in a radi,ally new form* it was now no longer the immobile grammati,al language of the Middle Ages but rather a liing and" by that toen" ,orruptible and mortal language) 5he intelle,tual moement that ,aptured this new e-perien,e of language was not #i,eronian humanism but rather the ,urrent of humanisti, philology that" from !oli:iano to 3eroaldo to !io" had ,on,entrated its le-i,ographi, attention on the ar,hai, and late facies of the latinity that was soon to be rigidified into a ,anon following the i,tory of 3embo@s position) In the pra-is of this seemingly pedanti, philology" in its obsessie e-,aations of obsolete and rare words" Hatin was not an instrumental language %whether alie or dead( but an e-perien,e in whi,h what was in,essantly at play was88as in the erna,ular loe poets88death and rebirth) ;nly by re,uperating this linguisti, problemati, in all its ,omple-ity is it possible to situate the language of )ypnerotomachia in its real ,onte-t) And it is from this perspe,tie that we must now loo to what is ,ertainly one of this wor@s most singular intentions* its abandonment of the erna,ular in faor of a humanist le-i,al passion" together with its retrieal of moments and ,ontents that fourteenth,entury loe poetry had assigned pre,isely to the erna,ular)
(8 5he affinities between !olifilo@s tale of loe and the themes of the =ol,e Stil oo and =ante@s lyri, poetry hae been often noted) 1Polifilo and Polia1 hae been said to be $lie =ante and 3eatri,e"$ and it has been pointed out how" under her fifteenth8,entury robes" !olia ,ontinues the soteriologi,al fun,tion of the lady in lyri, poetry" een as !olifilo is $humble and trembling lie the loers of the =ol,e Stil oo)$ 10 And it is pre,isely the te-t@s solid referen,e to loe poetry and ,onse
3o,,a,,io and the anonymous authors of the troubadour idas do nothing other than follow the loe poets@ intention through to its most e-treme ,onse
disordered state" by the most an,ient Italians under anus and Saturn" as when they had the poems of the Salii$ %Buam ,etustissimi 8taliae su' 8ano et Saturno sunt usi! incondita! ut se ha'ent carmina saliorum() !ris,a" the an,ient woman" is Hatin" but she is Hatin not as a language of nowledge but rather as an unnown language of the Golden Age" a language e
§ ' Pascoli and t%e T%oug%t of t%e (oice To (ianfranco Contini
8 Gianfran,o #ontini was the first to identify in Gioanni !as,oli@s poeti,s an aspiration to wor in a dead language that e-,eeded his poeti, ,raftsmanship in Hatin) +ollowing the ambition that is ,ommon to all great European de,adent poets %but that has perhaps a stronger lineage in Italy( to write in a new language" !as,oli" #ontini argues" positioned himself in relation to language as to a $resere of poeti, obe,ts that were on,e alie and to whi,h life was to be restored)$ Ben,e his appropriation in normal language of spe,ial languages %$down to those e-tremely spe,ial ones that are the phoni, se
88 In a passage of $e Trinitate that ,onstitutes one of the first pla,es in whi,h the idea of a dead language appears" St) Augustine offers a meditation on a dead word" a ,oca'ulum emortuum) Het us suppose" he says" that someone hears an unnown sign" the sound of a word of whose meaning he is ignorant" for e-ample the word temetum %an obsolete term for ,inum() 3eing ignorant of the word@s meaning" he will ,ertainly want to now it) 3ut for this it is ne,essary that he already now that the sound he has heard is not an empty oi,e %inanem ,ocem(" the mere sound reJmeJtum" but rather a signifying sound) ;therwise that trisyllabi, sound will already be fully nown the moment it is per,eied* 7hen all its letters and the length of ea,h sound are nown" what else would there be in it to loo for to now it better" if one did not also now that it is a sign" and if one were not moed by the desire to now what it signifiedD 5he more the word is registered" without being fully so" the more the soul therefore desires to now that residue of nowledge) If it new only the e-isten,e of this oi,e and not that it signified something" the soul would hae nothing to sear,h for on,e it had per,eied the sensible sound as best it ,ould) 3ut sin,e the soul already nows that there is not only a oi,e but also a sign" it wants to hae perfe,t nowledge of it) #an one say that someone is without loe if" with ardent :eal" he sees to now and perseeres" e-,ited by his studiesD #an one say that he therefore loesD #ertainly it is not possible to loe something that is not nown) And he does not
loe these three syllables that he already nows) #an it then be said that what he loes in them is the nowledge that they signify somethingD In this passage" the e-perien,e of the dead word appears as the e-perien,e of a word uttered %a ,o= ( insofar as it is no longer mere sound %istas tres sylla'as(" but not yet a signifi,ation88insofar as it is the e-perien,e" that is" of a sign as pure meaning ,olerJdireF and intention to signify before and beyond the arrial of eery parti,ular signifi,ation) +or Augustine" this e-perien,e of an unnown word %,er'um ignotum( in the no8man@s8land between sound and signifi,ation is the e-perien,e of loe as will to now) 7hat ,orresponds to the intention to signify without signifi,ation is not logi,al understanding" in fa,t" but rather the desire to now %Bui scire amat incognita! non ipsa incognita! sed ipsum scire amat * loe is thus always the desire to now() It is important" howeer" to stress that the site of this e-perien,e of loe" whi,h shows the ,o= in its purity" is a dead word" a ,oca'ulum emortuum: temetum) %Het us note here" in passing" that the !roenLal and =ol,e Stil oo theory of loe ,an only be understood as an attempt to ,all into
888 In the eleenth ,entury" medieal logi, returned" een before poetry did" to the Augustinian e-perien,e of the unnown oi,e to ground in it the most uniersal and originary e-perien,e" that of 3eing) In his obe,tion to St) Anselm@s ontologi,al argument" Gaunilo affirms the possibility of an e-perien,e of thought that neither signifies nor refers to a res" but instead dwells in $the oi,e alone)$ 4eformulating the Augustinian e-periment" he proposes a thining that ,on,eies not so mu,h the oi,e itself" whi,h is something somehow true" that is" the sound of the syllables and letters" so mu,h as the signifi,ation of the oi,e that is heard? not" howeer" as it is ,on,eied by him who nows what is usually signified by that oi,e" but rather as it is ,on,eied by him who does not now its signifi,ation and thins only a,,ording to the moement of the soul" whi,h sees to represent the signifi,ation of the oi,e that is per,eied) o longer mere sound and not yet logi,al signifi,ation" this thought of the oi,e alone$ %cogitatio secundum ,ocem solam( opens thought to an unheard dimension sustained in the pure breath of the oi,e" in mere ,o= as insignifi,ant will to signify)
8( In I #orinthians 10*18.2" !aul e-presses his stubborn ,riti
Bow are we to understand the te-t@s lalon glosseD glosse D ew 5estament hermeneuti,s has established that glossa means glossa means $spee,h foreign to the language of use? obs,ure term" whose meaning is not understood)$ 5his is the meaning the word already had in Aristotle? but uintilian still speas of glossemata as glossemata as ,oces minus usitatae %$more usitatae %$more unusual sounds$(" whi,h belong to the $more mysterious language" whi,h the Grees ,all glossas$ glossas$ %lingua %lingua secretior! Buam (raeci glossas ,ocant () () Glossolalia is therefore not the pure utteran,e of inarti,ulate sounds but rather a $spee,h in glosses"$ glosses"$ that is" a spee,h whose meaning is unnown" e-a,tly lie Augustine@s temetum) temetum) If I do not now the word@s dynamis %this dynamis %this too is a grammati,al term" one whi,h means $semanti, alue$(" !aul says" I will be a barbarian with respe,t to the person to whom I spea" and he who speas in me shall be a barbarian) 5he e-pression $he that speaeth in me$ %ho % ho lalon en emoi ( poses a problem that the Culgate and the Jing ames 3ible resole in interpreting en emoi as mihi " $for me"$ $unto me)$ 3ut the te-t@s en emoi ,an ,an only signify $in me"$ and what !aul means is perfe,tly ,lear* if I utter words whose meaning I do not understand" he who speas in me" the oi,e that utters them" the ery prin,iple of spee,h in me" will be something barbarous" something that does not now how to spea and that does not now what it says) 5o8spea8in8gloss is thus to e-perien,e in oneself barbarian spee,h" spee,h that one does not now? it is to e-perien,e an $infantile$ spee,h %$3rethren" be not ,hildren in understanding$( in whi,h understanding is $unfruitful)$
( 7hat" for !as,oli" is the e-perien,e of dead language as the $language of the poets$D Is it possible also to find in his poetry a dimension of language that" appearing with the ,hara,teristi,s we hae set,hed for the $thought of the oi,e alone$ and for glossolalia" glossolalia" has its pla,e between the withdrawal of mere sound and the arrial of signifi,ationD And if this were the ,ase" would it then be possible to interpret in a new n ew way and" at the same time" to grasp the unity of !as,oli@s poeti,s of dead language" his onomatopoeti,s and his phono8symbolismD phono8symbolismD 7e ,ontinue to stand before !as,oli@s te-t as $barbarians$ who do not now the dynamis of dynamis of words) $5here are little words that are poorly understood$ and that" despite the glossary that ,loses %and does not openK( Canti di Castel,ecchio" Castel,ecchio" do not truly want to be interpreted and to depart from the pure intention to signify that ,hara,teri:es speaing in gloss) #ontini has already noted the purely phono8symboli, alue of the word $ illano$ illano$ in $Lamorosa $Lamorosa giornata)$ giornata)$ 3ut this obseration ,ould be e-tended to the terms $Schilletta"$ Schilletta"$ $sericcia $sericcia"$ "$ $accia $accia"$ "$ $gronchio $gronchio"$ "$ $grasce $grasce"$ "$ $stiglie $stiglie"$ "$ $astile $astile"$ "$ $Palestrita $Palestrita"$ "$ $Stiampa"$ Stiampa"$ $Sprillo $Sprillo"$ "$ $tarmolo $tarmolo"$ "$ $strino $strino"$ "$ $legoro $legoro"$ "$ $cuccolo $cuccolo"$ "$ $guaime $guaime"$ "$ and innumerable other glosses" as in the -enoglossiae of $Italy$ and $5he Bammerless Gun$ %these last disseminated among ornithologi,al onomatopoeias() !as,oli ,ounts on a reader who does not now all the words he uses) As the $poet of a dead language$ says" in a te-t that bears that name" poetry" lie religion" needs $words that eil and daren their meaning" words" I mean" foreign to present use$ %and whi,h are neertheless used $to gie greater life to thought$() (lossolalia and (lossolalia and =enoglossia =enoglossia are are the ,iphers of the death of language* they represent language@s departure from its semanti, dimension and its return to the original sphere of the pure intention to signify %not mere sound" but rather language and thought of the oi,e alone() 5hought and language" we would say today" of pure phonemes8for what else ,an it mean to note an intention to signify that is distin,t from mere sound but that does not yet signify" if not to re,ogni:e language@s phonemes" the negatie and purely differential entities that a,,ording to modern linguisti,s hae no signifi,ation and" at the same time" mae signifi,ation possibleD It is therefore not truly a matter of phono8symbolism" but rather a matter of a sphere so to spea beyond or before sound" a sphere that does not sym'olie anything sym'olie anything as mu,h as it simply indicates an indicates an intention to signify" that is" the oi,e in its originary purity) 5his is an indi,ation that has its pla,e neither in mere sound nor in signifi,ation but rather" we might say" in pure grammata" grammata" in pure letters" pre,isely lie the $bla, sowing$ of language that" in Myri,ae@s $!i,,olo aratore"$ later flowers into a sonorous and liing world" or lie those ery letters that" gathered in $mantelle$ %another glossK(" in Piccolo mietitore spea mietitore spea between one@s teeth" $lie us" but better than us)$
(8 Analogous obserations ,an be made for !as,oli@s onomatopoeias" for those $si,,e,O"$ $uid"$ $ideitt"$ $s,ilp"$ $:isteretet"$ $:isteretet"$ $trr trr terit"$ $ fru"$ fru"$ $sii $sii sii "$ "$ $scricchiolettii $scricchiolettii "$ "$ $fruili $fruili "$ "$ and $sgrigiolii $sgrigiolii $ that ,rowd the erses of Canti and and Myricae and Myricae and that the poet himself" speaing of the language of swallows" assimilates to a dead language $no longer nown)$ ;nomatopoeia is generally ,hara,teri:ed as a pregrammati,al or agrammati,al language %$this language"$ #ontini writes" $as su,h has nothing to do with grammar$() In the introdu,tion to his Principles of Phonology " ) S) 5rubetsoy" ,onsidering the o,al imitation of natural sounds" writes* $If someone tells a hunting story and" to enlien his tale" imitates an animal sound or any other natural noise" he must at that point interrupt his story? the natural sound imitated is then a foreign body that remains outside normal representatie dis,ourse)$ et is it ,ertain that !as,oli@s onomatopoeias onomatopoeias are a pregrammati,al languageD And what" first of all" is a $pregrammati,al$ $pregrammati,al$ languageD Is su,h a language88a dimension of human language that is altogether not grammati,al88een ,on,eiableD An,ient grammarians began their studies with the oi,e % phone() phone() 3ut the oi,e" as pure natural sound" did not enter into grammar) Grammar aboe all begins by distinguishing the $,onfused oi,e$ of animals % phone agrammatos? agrammatos? the Hatins translate this as ,o= illiterata! Buae litteris comprehendi non potest " whi,h ,annot be written" lie the eBuorum hinnitus and hinnitus and the ra'ies canum( canum( from the human oi,e" whi,h ,an be written %engrammatos( engrammatos( and arti,ulated) A more subtle ,lassifi,ation" whi,h is of Stoi, origin" neertheless ,hara,teri:es the oi,e with greater sophisti,ation) $;ne must now"$ we read in =ionysius 5hra,e Techne grammati*e! that among ,oices! some are articulate and capa'le of 'eing 2ritten NengrammatoiO! li*e ours% thers! such as the crac*ling of fire and the din of stone and wood" are inarti,ulate and ,annot be written) ;thers still" su,h as imitations of irrational animals" lie 're*e*e*s and *oi " are inarti,ulate and yet ,an be written? these oi,es are inarti,ulate" sin,e we do not now what they mean" but they are engrammatoi " sin,e they ,an be written) Het us pause to ,onsider these inarti,ulate and yet $writable$ oi,es" these 're*e*e*s and 're*e*e*s and *oi " whi,h are so similar to !as,oli@s onomatopoeias) onomatopoeias) 7hat happens to the ,onfused animal oi,e su,h that it be,omes engrammatos and engrammatos and ,omprehended by lettersD In entering into grammata in grammata in being written" the animal oi,e is separated from nature" whi,h is inarti,ulate and ,annot be written? it shows itself in letters as a pure intention to signify whose signifi,ation is unnown %it is in this respe,t similar to glossolalia and glossolalia and Augustine@s ,oca'ulum emortuum() emortuum() 5he only ,riterion that maes it possible to distinguish it from the arti,ulated oi,e is" in fa,t" that $we do not now what it means)$ 5he gramma" gramma" the letter" whi,h itself does not signify" is therefore the ,ipher of an intention to signify that will be a,,omplished in arti,ulated language) Are*e*e*s! *oi " and other imitations of animal oi,es ,apture the oi,e of nature at the point at whi,h it emerges from the infinite sea of mere sound without yet haing be,ome signifying dis,ourse) It is in light of these ,onsiderations that we must regard !as,oli@s onomatopoeias) It is not a matter of mere natural sounds that simply interrupt arti,ulated dis,ourse? in !as,oli@s poetry" as in eery human language" there is no88and there ,ould neer be88presen,e of the animal oi,e) 5here is" rather" only a tra,e of the animal oi,e@s absen,e" of its $death"$ whi,h renders itself grammati,al in a pure intention to signify) Hie #aprona@s $s,hilletta$ %in Canti di Castel,ecchio(" Castel,ecchio(" these sounds belong to no liing being? they are a bell hanging on the ne, of a $shadow"$ a dead animal that now ,ontinues to sound between the hands of a $little boy$ who $does not spea)$ 5he oi,e" as in the poem by this name in Canti " is noted only $at the point in whi,h it dies"$ as an intention to signify %$to say many things and still more$( whi,h as su,h ,annot say and signify anything other than the $breath$ of a proper name %$Vani$() +rom this perspe,tie" the dead ,oice is ,oice is ,ertainly e
(88 5he letter is therefore the dimension in whi,h glossolalia and onomatopoeia" the poeti,s of dead language and the poeti,s of the dead oi,e" ,onerge in one site" where !as,oli situates the most proper e-perien,e of poeti, di,tation* the site in 2hich he can capture language in the instant it sin*s again! dying! into the ,oice! and at 2hich the ,oice! emerging from mere sound! passes +that is! dies0 into signification) signification ) In !as,oli@s poetry" glossolalia and glossolalia and onomatopoeia spea from one and the same pla,e" een if they seem to pass through it in opposite dire,tions) Ben,e the e-emplary ,hara,ter of the erses in whi,h onomatopoeia ,rosses oer into arti,ulated language and arti,ulated language ,rosses oer into onomatopoeia* onomatopoeia* inch % % % finch nel cielo ,olai di ,oi chi ,ide % % % ,ide % % % ,ide,itt 9nchio anchio chio chio chio chio)) %@nt % % % until 8 fle2 in the s*y! there 2ere those among you 2ho sa2 % % % sa2 % % % sa2itt% Me too me too eetoo eetoo eetoo eetoo%( eetoo% ( Ben,e also the parti,ular status in !as,oli@s poetry of the proper name" whose sphere of signifi,ation poses almost insurmountable problems for linguisti,s" and whi,h 4oman aobson says does not hae proper signifi,ation" being simply a referen,e of the linguisti, ,ode to itself) At the limit between onomatopoeia and glossolalia" glossolalia" the proper name seems to ,onstitute a dar point of ,rossing between oi,e and language) If $Vani$ is the $breath$ of the oi,e at the point at whi,h it dies"$ in $Hapide$ the proper name ins,ribed on the tomb of a girl is e-pli,itly defined as the $thought$ that the liing being" dying" e-hales into language* Lascia argentei il cardo al leggero tuo alito i pappi suoi come il morente alla morte un pensiero ,ago! ultimo: lom'ra di un nome) nome ) %5he thistle leaes its siler pappi to your light breath" as the dying man leaes a thought to death a ague" last thought* the shadow of a name)( #onsider also the onomasti, series of $Gog e Magog"$ whi,h re,alls the 3abeli, language of =ante@s emrod* di Mong! Mosach! Thu'al! 9neg! 9geg! 9ssur! Pothim! Cephar! 9lan! a me meK %Mong! Mosach! Thu'al! 9neg! 9geg! 9ssur! Pothim! Cephar! 9lan! to to meK( meK( Bere the pure language of names" in whi,h the dead oi,e is ins,ribed" de,ays and ,annot be separated from the glossolalia of glossolalia of words that $eil and daren their meaning)$ 5he e-perien,e of this $,rossing oer"$ whi,h ,onstitutes the site of !as,oli@s poeti, di,tation" is an e-perien,e of death) It is only in dying that the animal oi,e is" in the letter" destined to enter signifying language as pure intention to signify? and it is only in dying that arti,ulated language ,an return to the indistin,t womb of the oi,e from whi,h it originated) !oetry is the e-perien,e of the letter" but the letter has its pla,e in death* in the death of the oi,e %onomatopoeia( %onomatopoeia( or the death of language %glossolalia %glossolalia(" (" the two of whi,h ,oin,ide in the brief flash of grammata) grammata)
(888 In this ,onte-t we ,an also better understand the theory of the $little boy$ %fanciullino( by whi,h !as,oli tried to ,apture his own e-perien,e of poetry in terms of a di,tation %the little boy $di,tated inside$ detta dentroF lie loe in =ante() If the reader often ,onfronts !as,oli@s te-t lie the !auline barbarian who does not now the dynamis of words" the ,laim that genuinely ,hara,teri:es !as,oli@s e-perien,e of di,tation is that $he that speaeth$ in the poet is also a barbarian" speaing without nowing what he says and thus uttering spee,h in its in,eptie state" as pure intention to signify and the language of names) In a,,ordan,e with these prin,iples" the di,tation of the little boy is mainly presented in terms of oi,e %$he ,onfuses his oi,e with ours ) ) ) he feels only a palpitation" a s,ree,hing and a howling ) ) ) lie the ringing of a bell ) ) ) hearing its ,hattering$() 1 And the little boy appears as $Adam" who was the first to gie names)$ 7hat is de,isie" howeer" is that in the 1#itorno a san Mauro1 poems that ,lose Canti " his figure is reealed as the figure of a tomb" the shaded profile of a dead person that fades away and at times almost merges with that other dead person" his mother) All the 1#itorno a san Mauro1 poems are greatly ,larified if they are read as a dialogue with a dead language %the mother( and a dead oi,e %the little boy(" whi,h now betray their se,ret unity) In 1Mia madre!1 the infantile oi,e remains near the dead mother* Tra i pigolii dei nidi io ,i sentii la ,oce mia di fanciullo) %In the ,hirping of the nests" I heard my oi,e" the oi,e of a little boy)( And in $Gioannino"$ the little boy inhabits the limit of the ,emetery" being by now in his poeti, fun,tion ,learly e
deeply mars the physiognomy of Italian ,ulture* the will and the ,ons,iousness of operating in a dead language" in an indiidual and artifi,ially ,onstru,ted language" whi,h is $glossolali,$ in the sense ,onsidered" with or without a $prayer of interpretation)$ Bere we must thin not only of those names that immediately ,ome to mind when thining of twentieth,entury Italian writers88Gadda and Montale" !asolini" oenta" Van:otto88but also of those prose writers who wor in an apparently different area" su,h as Honghi" whose use of the word $s,andelle$ %$drops or parti,les of light$( in his essay on Serodine maes his synta- reminis,ent of !as,oli) Su,h is this people@s diffi,ult and enigmati, relation to their mother tongue" by whi,h it ,an only find itself in it if it su,,eeds in hearing it as dead" and by whi,h it ,an only loe it and mae it its own in breaing it into fragments and anatomi,al segments) Bere" too" 3eatri,e@s death ,onditions Italy@s entire literary tradition" and !etrar,h@s Haura %aura" $l@aura$( is nothing but the breath of the oi,e88a oi,e that" in the end" is only $dead air"$ aura morta)
8= +or !as,oli" human language is therefore always $language that no longer sounds on the lips of the liing$ in the double sense that it is ne,essarily a dead language or a dead oi,e and it is neer the liing oi,e of man or the spee,h of any liing ,reature) !as,oli" we might say" des,ends lie +aust into the 4eign of the Mothers" the goddesses who shelter $what has not e-isted for a long time$ and in whom we must see a figure of mother tongues and S,aligero@s matrices linguae) Hie +aust" !as,oli dis,oers that the Mothers are dead" and that around their heads fly only images that are $mobile" but lifeless$ %een if it is possible" through song" to animate them and to mae them sing() And the oi,e of nature is unattainable and dead along with them) %And is it not perhaps true that our eery word is a $dead letter"$ a dead language handed down to us by the dead" whi,h ,an neer gie rise to something liingD Bow is it possible" then" for these lifeless words to be,ome our liing oi,e" for dead letters to sing suddenly in the heart of the poetD( 5o spea" to poeti,i:e" to thin ,an only be" from this perspe,tie" to e-perien,e the letter as the e-perien,e of the death of one@s own language and one@s own oi,e) !as,oli@s e-perien,e of $letters$ is so serious and e-treme that this is what it means" for him" to be $a man of letters)$ !as,oli" $he who" when seen from behind" seemed a ,reator"$ who ,ertainly wrote $a terrible amount of ugly poems"$ is therefore truly $the most Eu ropean of Italian poets at the turn of the ,entury)$ 5he poet of metaphysi,s in the age of its de,line" !as,oli most radi,ally e-perien,es metaphysi,s@ original mythologeme88the mythologeme of the oi,e" its death and memorial preseration in the letter) 5his is pre,isely why" at the point at whi,h we register the ,o heren,e and rigor of !as,oli@s lesson" it is neertheless ne,essary also to pose a
§ ) T%e Dictation of Poetr! 8 5he problem of the relation between poetry and life has gien rise to su,h tena,ious ambiguities that it has ustly fallen into disrepute) #laims for its legitima,y are" howeer" as an,ient as the ery definition of man as the $liing being who has language)$ 5he problem@s dubiousness ,oin,ides with the diffi,ulties that this apparently triial formula has neer ,eased to pose to thought) 7hat does it mean for a liing being to speaD Is language" as seems obious" a ,reation and an e-pression of the liing human being" or is the opposite true instead" as we are all too in,lined to beliee todayD =o life and spee,h ,onstitute an arti,ulated unity" or is there a disun,tion between the two that neither indiidual e-isten,e nor the histori,al deelopment of humanity ,an oer,omeD
It is on this uneen ground that theology and" later" psy,hology and biology too up their residen,e) 7hen literary ,riti,ism and aestheti,s finally ,ame to formulate the problem of the relation between lied e-perien,e and poeti,i:ed e-perien,e with regard to the wor of art" the terrain on whi,h the problem ,ould hae been ,orre,tly posed had already been ,oered oer and foreer altered)
88 It is of this territory that a summary stratigraphy should first of all be drawn) E-,aation wor in the dire,tion indi,ated here is almost entirely la,ing) +rom the perspe,tie of the resear,her" what ought to be the most proper site of the poeti, wor appears instead as a ast field partially submerged in psy,hologi,al swampland" out of whi,h imposing ruins and theologi,al torsos o,,asionally rise) 5he lae8dwelling e-iles of literary inestigation are suspended on this un,ertain terrain" almost without any ,onta,t with it) 5he stru,tures of the literary wor that the modern s,ien,e of the te-t began to bring to light seeral de,ades ago do not" in the final analysis" dele into any other terrain) 5he fruitful wor of analysis that it has undertaen has been possible only thans to an epochZ that has rigorously bra,eted all elements of psy,hology and lied e-perien,e) 7hat thus ,omes to the foreground of formalist ,riti,ism" howeer" is88without eer appearing ,ons,iously as su,h8a purely theologi,al presupposition* the dwelling of the word in the beginning" of logos in archZ" that is" the absolutely primordial status of language) 5his uninterrogated persisten,e of a theologi,al foundation shows itself in the fa,t that the original stru,ture of the poeti, wor remains mared by negatiity* the primordiality of logos thus
888 In the prologue to the Gospel of ohn" the interla,ement of life % oZ( and spee,h %logos( is e-pressed in the following formula* $Eerything was made by him the HogosF and without him nothing of what was made was made) Hife was in him" and life was the light of men)$ 3ut until the fourth ,entury" when the te-t was altered to ,ombat the Arian heresy" and in the ,ommentaries of the first #hur,h +athers and the Hatin ersion that pre,edes the Cul gate" the te-t appeared in a different form" one that noti,eably ,hanges its meaning* $Eerything was made by him" and without him nothing was made" and what was made in him was life" and life was the light of men)$ #ommenting on these erses" the Gnosti, !tolomeus writes* $Eerything was made by the Hogos" but life was made in him) Hife" whi,h was made in him" is ,loser oi*oioteraF to him than what was made by him? life is one with him and bears fruit through him)$ In the same sense" ;rigen writes* $Hife itself is made in ,oming to pass to language epiginetai toi logoi F and" on,e made" remains inseparable a*horistosF from him)$ Hife is what is made in spee,h and what remains indistinguishable from it and ,lose to it) 5his un
8( In the theologi,al tradition that emerges from the ohanine prologue" the life8language relation thus runs in pre,isely the opposite dire,tion from the ,onention dominating the modern ,on,ept of biography) 5he theologi,al tradition was so authoritatie that it not only impeded the formation of a biographi,al ,anon in the modern sense but also determined how poets understood their relation to lied e-perien,e at the origins of 4oman,e lyri, poetry) An,ient rhetori, gae the name ratio %or ars( in,eniendi %as opposed to ratio iudicandi " whi,h ,on,erned the truth and ,orre,tness of spoen dis,ourse( to the te,hni
he might now and then find there the argumentum that he needed) Insofar as it sought aboe all to establish that the orator ne,essarily had at his disposal the $topi,s$ he needed" an,ient rhetori, in time de,ayed and be,ame a mnemote,hni,s" ,on,eiing of the $pla,es$ of spee,h as mnemoni, images whose mastery assured the orator the ability to present his argument) 5he first germs of a mutation in this pagan ,on,eption of in,entio following the new ar,hetypal status of ohanine logos ,an already be found in St) Augustine $eTrinitate 5rinitate" in whi,h in,entio is interpreted" by means of an etymologi,al figure" as in id ,enire Buod Bueritur ) Man" that is" finds spee,h only through an appetitus" an amorous desire" su,h that the eent of language appears as an ine-tri,able interla,ement of loe" spee,h" and nowledge) $7hile the mind loes itself and nows" its word is oined to it through loe) And sin,e the mind loes nowledge and nows loe" spee,h is in loe and loe is in spee,h" and both are in the loer and the speaer$ %cum itaBue se mens no,it et amat! iungitur ei amore ,er'um eius% Et Buoniam amat notitiam et no,it amorem! et ,er'um in amore et amor in ,er'o! et utrumBue in amante et dicente() 1 In the ,ourse of the twelfth ,entury" topi,s and their ratio in,eniendi were" in the wae of Augustine" interpreted in a radi,ally new way by the !roenLal poets) Modern European lyri, poetry has its origin in this reinterpretation) +or the poets" ratio in,eniendi be,ame rao de tro'ar " and it is from this e-pression that they drew their own name %tro'ador and tro'arit () 5he new e-perien,e of spee,h that is at issue here goes de,isiely ba, beyond ,lassi,al in,entio* the troubadours want not to re,all arguments ,onsigned to a topos but instead to e-perien,e the ery eent of language as original topos" whi,h taes pla,e in an absolute pro-imity of loe" spee,h" and nowledge) 5he rao" whi,h lies at the foundation of poetry and whi,h ,onstitutes what the poets ,all its di,tation %dictamen(" is therefore neither a biographi,al nor a linguisti, eent) It is instead a :one of indifferen,e" so to spea" between lied e-perien,e and what is poeti,i:ed il poetatoF" an $e-perien,e of spee,h$ as an ine-haustible e-perien,e of loe) 9mor is the name gien by the troubadours to this e-perien,e of the dwelling of spee,h in the beginning? and for them loe is therefore the rao de tro'ar par e-,ellen,e)
( 3etween the thirteenth and fourteenth ,enturies" the minstrels and $s,rieners$ %so they define themseles in the !roenLal songboos they ,ompile( U, de Saint #ir, and Mio,ellino(" whi,h briefly relate the life of the troubadour and the episode that lay at the origin of his poems) 7hat for the troubadours was an e=perience of the rao88that is" an e-perien,e of the eent of language as loe" as the tight unity of what is lied and what is poeti,i:ed88 now be,omes a gi,ing of reasons for e=perience) et things are not so simple) 5ae the rao of the famous song of 3ernart de Centadorn" 1;uan ,ei la laueta mo,er1 * And he 3ernartF presented himself to the du,hess of ormandy" who was young and well understood honor" merit" and good words) And 3ernart@s erses pleased her ery mu,h" and she warmly wel,omed him near her) Be remained at her ,ourt in this way for a long time" and he fell in loe with her and she fell in loe with him" and he ,omposed many beautiful songs) And he ,alled her $Alau:eta$ sylarF be,ause of a night who loed her and ,alled her $4ai$ rayF) And one day the night ,ame to the du,hess and entered her bedroom) 5he woman" who saw him" then lifted up the hem of the ,oat as high as her ne, and let herself fall onto the bed) And 3ernart saw eerything" sin,e one of the lady@s handmaids se,retly showed it all to him) And it is for this rao that he ,omposed the song that says* $uan ei la lau:eta moer)$ It suffi,es to glan,e at 3ernart@s song to reali:e that the author of the rao %who ,laims to note family gossip" as 3o,,a,,io will later do for =ante@s 3eatri,e( in fa,t does nothing other than bring the troubadour@s a,tiity to its most e-treme ,onse
apparent intention to relate the biographi,al ane,dote that should e-plain the poem" he ,ompletely inents it %and" to tell the truth" inents it rather awwardly( on the basis of the first three erses of the poem %$;uan ,ei la laueta mo,er D de Goi sos alas contra[l rai D Bue so'lid es laissa chaer $() Be thus ,onstru,ts what is lied on the basis of what is poeti,i:ed and not the inerse %as ought to be done a,,ording to the biographi,al paradigm to whi,h we moderns are a,,ustomed() It is not by ,han,e that ,idas and raos were written %as shown by the Italianisms that proliferate in their le-is( in an Italian eni ronment or at the least for an Italian publi,) +or it is pre,isely here" a,,ording to a ,anon that has its e-emplary moments in the ita nuo,a and the $i,ine Comedy " that life is ,on,eied essentially as fable %fabula" that is" a,,ording to the etymologi,al root" something that essentially has to do with spee,h" with fa'ulari () 7hat was" in the prologue to the Gospel of ohn" the inseparable dwelling of life in logos now be,omes fable" ,omedy" life8in8spee,h %+i,ino* $not life" but the fable of life$() It is good not to forget that in 4oman,e literature" narratie %at least in the sense of short story( is born as the rao of lyri, poetry) It is thans to the poeti, word@s unspeaable dwelling in the 'eginning that something lie lied e-perien,e is made for the narrator) 5his is the $noella$ that he limits himself to e-emplifying)
(l Adding an introdu,tion to the se,ond edition of his stories in 1926" Antonio =elfini wrote the longest rao for Il ricordo della Basca that any poet has eer ,omposed for his wor) In this ,ase the rao" howeer" riss leading the reader astray" as had already happened in !roenLal biographies) =elfini gestures in the dire,tion of the author@s e-perien,e" but it is an e-perien,e %whether authenti, or not( in no way e-hausted in the biographi,al eents that arti,ulate it) And this is not be,ause a future biographer will be unable to erify that a fifteen8year8old Italian girl appeared in the street to the young artist on a summer day of a ,ertain year" although it is already ,ertain that he wrote Poesie della fine del mondo after haing met a woman in !arma of whom it is all too easy to furnish an anagrammati, identity) 5he fa,t is that in =elfini" as in perhaps no other writer of the twentieth ,entury" the indeterminateness of what is lied and what is poeti,i:ed is absolute" and life is truly only 2hat is made in speech) In this sense" =elfini is the most authenti, heir to the troubadour and =ol,e Stil oo tradition" and his entire wor ,an be iewed as a singular draft" after seen ,enturies" on the ,ulture that produ,ed the !roenLal biographies) 5his is why when =elfini gae his loe letters to Ugo and Mi,hin Guanda shortly before leaing for his last stay in 4ome" he soberly made ,lear that he had gien them not a $do,ument of loe$ %as the re,ipients had mistaenly thought( but rather $an editorial offering)$ Bere we find a ,orre,tion of the $psy,hologi,al mirror writing$ that" a,,ording to a ,leer entry in Jafa@s penultimate noteboo" maes it seem that men are in,essantly ,on,erned to ,onsolidate their life with a posteriori writings and ustifi,ations) 7ith a de,isie gesture =elfini shows" against eery psy,hologi,al reading" that $in reality man ere,ts his life on his own ustifi,ations"$ sin,e $here no one ,reates anything other than the possibility of spiritual life)$ It is" in any ,ase" upon these ar,hetypes that both =elfini and Jafa ,onstru,ted their lies) 5heir biographi,al failure %or at least what appears as su,h in the inerted image of psy,hology( had to bear witness to88and not ustify88the theologi,al authenti,ity of writing %its dwelling in the archZ()
(88 5he worst way to misunderstand Poesie della fine del mondo would" howeer" be to read it as an immediate trans,ription of the life of Antonio =elfini %as $priate reenge"$ as it has inappropriately been ,alled() 5he note with whi,h the ,olle,tion ends leaes no doubt as to the position of these te-ts in principio" stating without ambiguity that $before the poet wrote there was not only no reality" but een the so8,alled reality of the publi, ,ould not hae been formulated)$ 5he ,laim of the ante,eden,e of lied e-perien,e %$so8,alled real life$( to the te-t belongs to $those who" not nowing how and not being able to lie that is" in speechF" let nothing lie" re
the sinister phantoms with obs,ene ni,names who so often appear in the te-t" where they hae the same fun,tion as the lauengier " the liar in !roenLal songs)( In =elfini" the world and life are born with spee,h and in spee,h) 7hy then does the title so ,learly spea of the $end of the world$ as something that has in,ontestably already happened %or that" in any ,ase" is already happening(D Bow ,ould it happen that spee,h is no longer ,apable of maing life and maintaining it in its autonomyD And why does the spee,h of poetry here inaugurate not a ,ita no,a but a ,osmi, and poetologi,al ,atastrophe without pre,edentD 5hat =elfini was aware of the almost theologi,al impli,ations of this situation is impli,it in one of the ariant titles that figures among the author@s notes* $God e-ists" but not the world)$ 5here ,ould be no ,learer way to e-press the drasti, rupture of the lifepoetry and logosJcosmos lin that ,hara,teri:es both the prologue to the Gospel of ohn and the di,tation of the =ol,e Stil oo poets) In the other possible title presered in =elfini@s notes" $S,enes unleashed from life in the proin,es"$ the ade,tie $unleashed$
(888 5he ,atastrophe that is a,,omplished in these poems is therefore nothing less than the rupture of the poeti, rao" the irreparable fragmentation of =elfini@s di,tation) 3ut this la,eration" whi,h abandons life to its $true bad lu,"$ immediately reerberates in poetry itself" whi,h now be,omes $bad poetry"$ poetry that the poet neertheless ,annot eep himself from writing %$it is my duty to write bad poetry"$ we read in the incipit of one the ,olle,tion@s ey poems() 5he poet himself must thus88and this is the most atro,ious eent of the ,atastrophe88brea his own di,tation* $deta,h your horrible thought from pen > and from paper" this mu,h is demanded and des,ribed here$ %distaccare il tuo orri'ile pensiero dalla penna D e dalla carta Buanto Bui si ,uole e si descri,e() 5his tas is" in other words" e-a,tly the opposite of the one =ante assigned to loe poets through the figure of 3onagiunta in Purgatorio %$your pen follows ,lose after him who di,tates$ le ,ostre penne D di retro al dittator sen ,anno stretteF() . 5his is why the poet appears in the prefa,e as a $murderer$* he is ,ondemned to ill his $lady"$ that is" his own life and his own poetry" his poetry8life %$the only way possible is death$() Ben,e the preliminary inersion of the feminine figure to whi,h the loe poets assigned the most integral image of their di,tation) 5he woman %the $3as,a"$ ins,ribed in the tradition of the Stilnoist and !roenLalsenhal among 3eatri,e" Gioanna" Miell: de =omna" =e:irada" 3on Ce:i(" who bore the unity of what is lied and what is poeti,i:ed and of life in spee,h" is now for,ibly separated from writing and spee,h and transformed into bare life" the hideous and dar symbol $of fraud" betrayal" sin)$ In a famous poem %whose erbal iolen,e is in eery way a mat,h for =elfini@s ine,ties(" Arnaut =aniel eoes the figure of his own di,tation as a woman %,alled Anya( whose body is broen in one area %in its corn" whi,h philologi,al rigor ainly attempts to identify as some feminine orifi,e or sphin,ter() In a ind of al,hemi,al storm" all life threatens to es,ape from this area in the form of a is,ous se,retion" fetid smoe" and boiling refuse) In the lady of many names" in the $filthy" foul ,reature$ or $infamous" dirty phantom"$ =elfini sees before him this life %the woman@s life" hen,e also his life( in the a,t of definitiely parting from spee,h and irreparably taing leae of poetry to be,ome $real life)$ 5his separation" this unbearable reifi,ation" is the theme of =elfini@s poems)
8= It is therefore possible to understand why =elfini" in his prefa,e" defines the Poesie della fine del mondo as an $anti8Canoniere%1 Ta*en literally! this definition contains a precious reference not only to the literary tradition in 2hich his collection is situated 'ut also to the poetic e=perience that is accomplished in it%
8n the Vita nuova ! $ante consciously plays 2ith the title of the 2or*! so that it is impossi'le to decide once and for all if in the title one is to find a reference to 2hat is li,ed or to 2hat is poeticied! to the 1'oo*1 +li'ro0 of memory +in 2hich one finds the title 8ncipit ,ita no,a0 or to the 1'oo*let1 + libello 0 in 2hich the poet transcri'es 2hat the reader 2ill read% The entry ita no,a thus delimits an undecida'ility 'et2een 2hat is li,ed and 2hat is poeticied% Consider instead the autograph title of PetrarchCanoniere: ranceschi Petrarchae laureati poetae rerum ,ulgarium fragmenta %in the #higi autograph" fragmentorum li'er () Bere the author" ,olle,ting poems in the ,olle,tion that we are inappropriately a,,ustomed to ,onsider as the $organi, adenture of a soul"$ distan,es them from lied e-perien,e with a de,isie apotropai, gesture* it is merely a matter of $fragments in the erna,ular)$ 5here ,ould be no ,learer way to say that the poeti, unierse that gae rise to the !roenLal and =ol,e Stil oo proe,ts had by now been left behind foreer %the term fragmenta" whi,h sounds so modern" must be restored its original sense as $splinters" shards"$ as in Isidore Etymologiae! QQ " ." 1'* fragmenta! Buia di,iditur! ut fracta() 7ith a definitie moement away from the troubadour di,tation" life now stands on one side" and poetry" on the other side" is only literature" mourning the irremediable death of Haura) 5he Poesie della fine del mondo is an anti8Canoniere be,ause it is pre,isely this moement that =elfini refuses to a,,ept at any pri,e) Ben,e the furious war that the poet unleashes with his last for,es against $reality"$ whi,h is to the same degree a battle for poetry" a battle to eep the Poesie della fine del mondo from eer be,oming a Canoniere% This is 2hy he fights against the 1lady1 of many heteronyms! the dar* senhal of 'are life and the luminous cipher of complete life: the girl 2ith the flaming rose! the daughter! naturally! of (uido Ca,alcanti +2ho here authoritati,ely represents the tradition of lo,e poets0% Such is the apocalyptic ,ision +2hich! li*e e,ery apocalypse! carries a historical inde=: one of the significant merits of the collection is to ha,e captured the infernal facies of the -.o,o as 2ell as of Petrarch! a poetic dictation reser,ed for future poetic generations%
§ * E+,ro,riated Manner 8 At the time of his death" on anuary .." 199" Giorgio #aproni was preparing a ,olle,tion of poems whose title" themati, ,ontent" and relation to his preious wor he had already announ,ed" publi,ly or priately" on arious o,,asions) ;n,e he had finished the final draft of the poem he entitled $4es amissa$ %shortly before anuary ." 19'&" if not on that ery day(" 1 #aproni noted the following on the manus,ript* 5his poem will be the sube,t of my new boo %if I su,,eed in writing it(" followed by ,ariations" ust as in Conte di U% the sube,t is the 3east %eil( in its arious forms and metamorphoses) 7e are all gien something pre,ious that we then lose irreo,ably) %5he 3east is Eil) 5he res amissa the lost thingF is Good)( et the first set,h of the poem %whi,h" although not dated" is ,ertainly from sometime after the first days of oember 19'6" the time of the isit to #ologne that furnished the o,,asion for the poet@s refle,tions( already ,ontained an annotation" first written in pen,il and later nerously ,ontinued in pen) $7e are all"$ it reads" $%without our remembering from whom( > gien something pre,ious > and we hide it away so ,arefully that we no longer remember where and" een" what the gift is #es amissa 5he opposite of the #ount #enter loss)$ Hater" #aproni e-plained in an interiew with =omeni,o Astengo* A little poem $(eneraliando"$$Generali:ing$F that would" pre,isely to generali:e" be something of a ,aption" or abbreiation" of a boo that I am dreaming of" whi,h" if I su,,eed in writing" I would ,all #es amissa% The idea came to me from a ,ery 'anal fact that 2ould ta*e Buite a 2hile to e=plain here% 8t can happen to anyone that he hides a2ay a precious thing so carefully as then to forget not only the things location! 'ut also the actual nature of the o'Gect itself% This is a su'Gect that! for all its apparent simplicity! is ,ery am'itious! especially so! 8 thin*! on account of the 1,ariations1 it can produce% This time 2hat 2ould 'e at sta*e 2ould no longer 'e the hunt for the Aeast! as in Conte di Ue,enhller! 'ut rather the hunt for the lost (ood% 9 (ood left entirely ad li'item to the reader! a (ood perhaps identifia'leJJfor the 'elie,erJJ2ith (race! gi,en that there is such a thing as 1admissi'le (race%1 ith (race or 2ith anything else of the *ind% +Aut 8 'elie,e the latter is not my case%0 or Caproni! the cue for such an 1am'itious1 ,ariation may ha,e 'een e,en merely an entry in one of the reference 'oo*s he routinely used! Palai 8talian $ictionary% This is suggested 'y an annotation made on one of the pages of the manuscript: 1Palai 9dmissi'le +from the Latin amittere0 that can 'e lost: admissi'le grace%1 The speed 2ith 2hich this laconic lemma suffices to introduce one of the most arduous theological and ethical pro'lems is astonishing% +Aut 2hoe,er has held in his hands one of Capronis copies of the $i,ine Comedy! full of marginalia and 2orn out 'y freBuent use! 2ill ha,e no trou'le imagining ho2 much theology he could transmit to his poetry%0 The su'Gect of the admissi'ility of grace is! ho2e,er! found for the first time precisely in an author dear to Caproni! St% 9ugustine! 2ho! in his $e natura et gratia! discusses it in the conte=t of his dispute 2ith Pelagius% 6 The position of Pelagius! one of the most impressi,e figures pushed to the margins of the Christian tradition 'y dogmatic orthodo=y! is 2ell *no2n% The possi'ility of not sinning +impeccantia0! Pelagius held! inheres in human nature in an insepara'le manner +and this leads 9ugustine to coin the adGecti,e inamissi'ile0! 3 and there is there fore no need for the interention of an ulterior gra,e" human nature being itself the immediate wor of diine gra,e) 7ith his usual a,umen" Augustine dis,erns the ultimate ,onse
#aproni@s idea is a ind of e-treme !elagianism* gra,e is a gift so profoundly infused in human nature that it ,annot be made nown to it" being always already a res amissa and always already unappropriable) Inadmissible" sin,e it is always already lost" and lost on a,,ount of being88lie life and nature itself88too intimately possessed" too $,arefully %irre,oerably( hidden away)$ 5his is why #aproni" e-plaining to =omeni,o Astengo the sense of the $thorn of nostalgia$ %spina della nostalgia( in the poem 1(eneraliando!1 spe,ified that $the ,ontent or obe,t of su,h nostalgia is nostalgia itself)$ Bere the good that is gien is not" in fa,t" something that was on,e nown and then forgotten %the $then$ poi F of 1(eneraliando1 is not ,hronologi,al but purely logi,al() 5he gift that is re,eied is" instead" foreer lost from the beginning) 5he anaphori, $it$ % ne( that opens #es amissa %$I find no tra,e of it$ >on ne tro,o tracciaF( remains foreer depried of the anaphori:ed term that alone ,ould furnish it with its denotatie alue) 7ith a ,hara,teristi, gesture" #aproni" drasti,ally identifying gra,e and nature in the figure of the res amissa" renders obsolete the ,ategorial distin,tions on whi,h 7estern theology and ethi,s are founded88or rather" he ,ompli,ates them and displa,es them into a region in whi,h their sense radi,ally ,hanges) ;ne ,ould" that is" repeat for #aproni the 'outade with whi,h 7alter 3enamin defined his own relation to theology when he ,ompared it to that between an in pad and in* the in pad is" to be sure" full of in" but if it were up to the pad" not een a drop of in would remain) 5his is why the term $negatie theology$ %whose misuse the poet himself aoided( is neither useful nor ade
88 A date of birth ,an be assigned" with reasonable a,,ura,y" to poeti, atheology* it is the day on whi,h BRlderlin" at the dawn of the nineteenth ,entury" ,orre,ted the last two erses of the poem 1$ichter'eruf1 % 1The Poets Calling1 () 7here the first ersion read* @nd *einer rde 'rauchts! und *einer affen! solange der (ott nicht fehlet %And there is no need for worth and for arms" as long as the god is not absent( BRlderlin ,orre,ts* @nd *einer affen 'rauchts! und *einer Listen! so lange! 'is (ottes ehl hilft ) %And there is no need for arms and for ,unning" as long as God@s absen,e aids)(
0
7hat begins here %without being ,onsigned to any tradition in the stri,t sense" but instead rebounding" so to spea" from poet to poet( is not a new theology? and it is not een a negatie theology %whi,h posits pure 3eing in withdrawing from it eery real predi,ate and essen,e() or is it an atheisti, #hristology %as in a ,ertain ,ontemporary so,ial theology() BRlderlin@s ,orre,tion mars the point at whi,h the diine and the human alie are ruined" at whi,h poetry opens onto a region that is un,ertain and deoid of a sube,t" flattened on the trans,endental" and whi,h ,an be defined only by the BRlderlinian euphemism" $betrayal of the sa,red)$ %$5hus"$ we read in the >otes to BRlderlin@s translation of Sopho,les @ edipus" $man forgets himself and the god turns away" but sa,redly" as a traitor) At the e-treme limit of suffering nothing remains but the ,onditions of spa,e and time)$( 7hat ,hara,teri:es poeti, atheology as opposed to eery negatie theology is its singular ,oin,iden,e of nihilism and poeti, pra,ti,e" thans to whi,h poetry be,omes the laboratory in whi,h all nown figures are undone and new" parahuman or semidiine ,reatures emerge* BRlderlin@s half8god" Jleist@s marionette" iet:s,he@s =ionysus" the angel and the doll in 4ile" Jafa@s ;drade as well as #elan@s $Medusahead$ and $automaton$ and Montale@s $pearly snail@s tra,e)$ %In this sense" atheology had already
begun when !roenLal and =ol,e Stil oo lyri, poetry transformed poetry into the ,hamber or stana in whi,h an absolute e-perien,e of desube,tii:ation and deindiiduation went hand in hand with the ,eremonious inention of figures of delirium* the woman8angel and the loe8spirits of the =ol,e Stil oo poets and the partial bodies of the troubadours" all under the sign of the parado-i,al identifi,ation of poetry with the female body)( In #aproni" all figures of atheology rea,h a point at whi,h they tae leae) $=is,harge$ or $taing leae$ congedoF is truly the e-emplary moment of the later #aproni %I tae the later #aproni to begin with the publi,ation of Congedo del ,iaggiatore cerimonioso in 1962() 3ut whereas BRlderlin@s infidelity held fast pre,isely to the hope that $the memory of the heaenly ones might not end"$ here what asserts itself is the $de,ision to mae do without"$ in whi,h een atheologi,al pathos is definitiely set aside" the memory of gods and men e,lipsed and a way ,leared to a lands,ape that is now entirely empty of figures) 5his is why #aproni" perhaps more than any other ,ontemporary poet" su,,eeded in e-pressing without any shadow of nostalgia or nihilism the ethos and almost the Stimmung of the $solitude without God$ of whi,h he speas in ranco cacJciatore ,iatore@s $Inserto)$ %$3asi,ally unbreathable) Bard and ,olorless lie of the same illusion* that is > to lie master of one@s own being$() & 5his is how one must understand the tight ,orresponden,e suggested by #aproni between the two ,olle,tions* together they ,onstitute the panels of a dipty,h bearing the introdu,tion to a new ethos" that is" to the new dwelling of the $disinhabitants$ of the earth)
888 7hy does poetry matter to usD 5he ways in whi,h answers to this
and poetry apart" destining humanity to transmit a patrimony that is holy but that has be,ome useless pre,isely in the issue that should hae be,ome de,isie) ;pposed to these two positions is the e-perien,e of the poet" who affirms that if poetry and life remain infinitely diergent on the leel of the biography and psy,hology of the indiidual" they neertheless be,ome absolutely indistin,t at the point of their re,ipro,al desube,tii:ation) And88at that point88they are united not immediately but in a medium) 5his medium is language) 5he poet is he who" in the word" produ,es life) Hife" whi,h the poet produ,es in the poem" withdraws from both the lied e-perien,e of the psy,hosomati, indiidual and the biologi,al unsayability of the spe,ies) At the origins of Italian poetry" in the ter:ina in whi,h =ante defines the =ol,e Stil oo" this unity of lied e-perien,e and what is poeti,i:ed il poetatoF in the medium of language at a point that is both singular and without a sube,t was presented as the proper tas of the poet* Ed io a lui: 8 mi son un che! Buando 9mor mi spira! noto! e a Buel modo ch ditta dentro ,o significando) %And I to him" $I am one who" when Hoe inspires me" taes note" and goes setting it forth after the fashion whi,h he di,tates within me)$( ' Bere the $I$ of the poet is from the beginning desube,tii:ed into a generi, un %$one$(" and it is this un %something more88or less88than the $e-emplary uniersal$ of whi,h #aproni speas( that" in the di,tation of loe" e-perien,es the indissoluble unity of lied e-perien,e and what is poeti,i:ed) 5he unity of poetry and life does not hae a metaphori,al ,hara,ter at this leel) ;n the ,ontrary" poetry matters be,ause the indiidual who e-perien,es this unity in the medium of language undergoes an anthropologi,al ,hange that is" in the ,onte-t of the indiidual@s natural history" eery bit as de,isie as was" for the primate" the liberation of the hand in the ere,t position or" for the reptile" the transformation of limbs that ,hanged it into a bird) 5ae the legendary ,y,le of ersi li,ornesi for Annina !i,,hi in #aproni 8l seme del piangere% hoe,er is not 2holly insensiti,e to the pro'lems and tradition of poetry 2ill remain astonished at this stri*ing resurgence of the Sicilian canonetta and Ca,alcantis 'allata in the cele'ration of the 1splendid in,ention1 +Mengaldo0 of an amorous relation 2ith a motherJmaiden% ne cannot! ho2e,er! grasp the poetic tas* that is fulfilled here as long as one considers this poetry in the conte=t of the psychological and 'iographical Buestion of the incestuous su'limation of the motherJson relationshipJJ2hich is to say! as long as one does not recognie the anthropological change that ta*es place in these ,erses% or here there are neither figures of memory nor e,en amor de lonh% #ather! lo,e! in a *ind of temporal +and hence not merely spatial! as in the $olce Stil >o,o poets0 shamanism! encounters for the first time its loe obe,t in another time) 5his is why there ,an be no tra,e of in,est* the mother is truly a girl" $a ,y,list"$ and the $betrothed$ poet literally loes her at first sight ) In this sense" #aproni@s man belongs to a different phylon from the man of ;edipus* leaping in one bound oer the lugubrious ,hronologi,al order of the family" the edi,t of Cersi liornesi announ,es the end of ;edipus and the in,estuous family) 7hoeer ,ontinues" when ,onfronted with this poetry" to spea in terms of in,est and psy,hology ,annot but play the part of the e-emplary ,riti, who" with nowhere to go" lingers oer the dead railway tra, of poeti, anthropology) Ben,e the terrible reuniting of the two figures ad portam inferi " when the girl ends by ,onfusing herself with the oedipal mother and sear,hes in ain for the eys and the ring she ,annot hae) 5he infernal threshold here does not so mu,h mar the passage from the reign of the liing to that of the dead as it mars the point of fusion" in the liing furna,e of poeti, fantasy" at whi,h the two pass through ea,h other) 5he death of Annina !i,,hi" e-a,tly lie that of 3eatri,e" is not the death of an indiidual but the tremendous ,ollision between two irre,on,ilable worlds)
5hese are therefore not $family poems$ 9 but rather" as in the poem to the son Attilio Mauro in Muro della terra! temporal in,ersions and phylogenetic e=changes in 2hich family hierarchies 'ecome unrecognia'le% Caproni! in other 2ords! succeeds 2here Pascoli perhaps tried! 'ut failedJJto confuse and erotically transfigure the 2alls of the domus and the family! in order ultimately to encounter creatures 2ho! 2holly re'orn to themsel,es and to others! once li,ed there% This is 2hy it is not senseless to compare the girl of ersi li,ornesi 2ith Pascolis 1La tessitrice% 1 &ust as Ca,alcanti and the $olce Stil >o,o poets +on the epochal threshold of an anthropological change that 2ould for the first time dislocate se=uality 'eyond the confines of reproduction of the species0 had! through their 1spirits1 or spiritelli! presented in a li,ing figure the separate Sicilian image of the 2oman painted in the mind! so the mute pantomime of memory that imprisons Pascolis 1,irgin1 is dissol,ed! in Caproni! in the cheerful gesture of the em'roideress and the li,ely! noisy run of the cyclist% The transformation of the oedipal family that failed in !as,oli@s San Mauro is happily a,,omplished in Hiorno in #aproni@s e-periment" in whi,h the alen,e of $progressie anthropology"$ whi,h S,hlegel and the ena 4omanti,s assigned to poetry" shows its full truth) %3y a singular ,oin,iden,e that we re,ord here only out of the loe of ,uriosity" #aproni is also the name of the physi,ian who" in 3arga" treated the dying !as,oli)(
8( Anthropologi,al ,hanges ,orrespond" in language" to poetologi,al ,hanges) 5hese are all the more diffi,ult to register in that they do not simply represent stylisti, or rhetori,al progressions" but rather ,all into
noel" ,arrying it away toward other" less legible genres %the philosophi,al treatise or the erudite noteboo() 5erms of $manner$ are ,ertainly apt" to the e-tent that they register the phenomenon@s irredu,ibility to a pro,edure of stylisti, eolution) Bere" howeer" it will be ne,essary to oerthrow or abandon the usual hierar,hi,al relation between style and manner" and to ,onsider their ,onne,tion in a new light) 5hese ,on,epts designate two realities that are ,orrelates" yet irredu,ible to ea,h other) If style mars the artist@s most ,hara,teristi, trait" manner registers an inerse pro,ess of e-propriation and e-,lusion) It is as if the old poet" who found his style and rea,hed perfe,tion in it" now forgets it in order to adan,e the singular ,laim of e-pressing himself solely through impropriety) In the areas in whi,h it has been most rigorously defined %art history and psy,hiatry(" manner in fa,t designates a polar pro,ess* manner is an e-aggerated adhesion to a us age or model %stereotype" or repetition( and" at the same time" a show of absolute e-,ess with relation to it %e-traagan,e" or singularity() In art history" mannerism thus $presupposes the nowledge of a style to whi,h one beliees oneself to adhere" but whi,h one instead un,ons,iously sees to aoid$ %!inder() +or psy,hiatrists" on the other hand" the mode of being of the mannerist ,onsists in showing $impropriety in the sense of not being oneself$ and" at the same time" the will to earn thereby one@s own terrain and status %3inswanger() Analogous obserations ,ould be made with respe,t to the writer and his language? and it ought not to be forgotten that a signifi,ant ,urrent of Italian literature %Gadda is e-emplary here( is ,hara,teri:ed by nothing other than taing its distan,e" so to spea" from language through an e-,essie" mannered adhesion to it %as if the writer e-,luded himself from the language in whi,h he wrote in order to be oer,ome by it() ;nly in their re,ipro,al relation do style and manner a,
( In twentieth8,entury Italian literature" #aproni@s late poetry ,onstitutes perhaps the most e-emplary testimony to this diergen,e) Bere one finds" first of all" at least two of the traits noted by Hewy and #ontini* the tenden,y to anomalous ade,tial ,ompounds %to tae only #es amissa* $bian,oflauta"$ $flautos,omparsa$( and a nominal style %the e-treme ,ase is $Inen:ioni"$ in whi,h seen out of eight senten,es hae no erb() !asolini@s oing remar %whi,h the poet himself lied to repeat( that #aproni speas not Italian but $#apronian$ is in this sense ustified) 3ut what is essential is that this transgressie manner e-erts itself on the element that" more than any other" ,hara,teri:es poetry* meter) +or at a ,ertain point the poet who had rea,hed e-,ellen,e both in the harsh" almost stony te,hni
of 7ilhelm 3us,h( is the laboratory in whi,h #aproni prepared for the $transformation$ that mared his late poetry" that is" its progressie e-propriation of the $musi,al tie)$ %Might the reader allow a digression) More than any other European national literature" twentieth8,entury Italian poetry ept itself most faithful to the need for metri,al ,losure in poeti, dis,ourse) German lyri, poetry has been familiar with freie #hythmen those" for e-ample" of oalis )ymns to the >ight and 4ile $uino ElegiesF for oer a ,entury? and +ren,h poetry definitiely turns its ba, on the metri,al tradition with MallarmO@s $Un ,oup de dOs)$ In Italy" on the other hand" the twentieth ,entury despite d@Annun:io@s free erse88but on this see Hu,ini@s obserationsKF mars one of the peas of musi,al ersifi,ation" one without ,ounterpart in other European languages) Ben,e its untranslatability) 4ile" for all the profundity of the ,ontent of his poems" often remains the prisoner of a soft musi,ality as far as rhythm is ,on,erned" ustifying 3enamin@s ,hara,teri:ation of him as the poet of &ugendstil% Pascoli! 2hose poems su'Gects are often do2nright insipid! is 2ithout ri,al in Europe in his mastery of the musical tie% This is 2hy Pintors translation of >eue (edichte in Poemi con,i,iali is eBual! if not superior! to the original! 2hile a translation not only of Pascoli 'ut e,en of Penna or Caproni 2ill ne,er succeed in gi,ing the ,aguest idea of the original%0 8t has already 'een noted ho2 this progressi,e transfiguration of the musical tie articulates itself in Capronis last collections% The traditional measure of the ,erse is drastically contracted! and the three ellipsis dots +2hich Caproni himself compares to the piicato that functions to 'rea* up the de,elopment of the melodic phrase in Schu'erts op% /3 Buartet0 mar* the impossi'ility of completing the prosodic theme% The ,erse is thus reduced to its limiting elements: enGam'ment +if it is true that enGam'ment is the only criterion that allo2s one to distinguish poetry from prose0 and caesura +2hich )Vlderlin defined as 1antirhythmic1 and 2hich e=pands to the point of de,ouring the 2hole rhythm0% -6
ne ought to spea*! therefore! neither of free nor of typographically fragmented ,erse! 'ut rather of aprosody +in the sense in 2hich neurologists! 2ho spea* of aphasia 2hen characteriing distur'ances to the logicoJdiscursi,e aspect of language! define aprosody as the alteration of languages tonal and rhythmic aspects0% 9nd one ought to recognie that this aprosody is! as is o',ious! patiently calculated and o'sessi,ely ordered + Capronis pu'lishers 2ere familiar 2ith the poets almost maniacal attention to the typographical arrangement0! 2hich ma*es it no less destructi,e% 9ccording to the polar character of poetic 2riting that has already 'een noted! ho2e,er! this estrangement from the prosodic element produces an opposite effect: the moc* ,erse of the counterCaproni% -3 ne may 2onder 2here the in,asi,e proliferation of this %metri,ally triial( humming ,omes from" a,,ompanying the broen song of the last poems almost lie whistling in the middle of the seerest hymn" giing ,onsisten,y to the paradoof a poet who lies in personal union with a ,ounter8poet) 5hese little erses are the splinters ,hipped off from the impla,able wor of e-propriation that ,hara,teri:es #aproni@s supreme manner) In this sense" #es amissa truly ,ontains the final sense of its poetry) +or now poetry itself has" for the old poet" be,ome the res amissa in whi,h it is impossible to distinguish between nature and gra,e" dwelling and gift" possession and e-propriation) Boering" poised in a ind of trans,endental mimi,ry between the aprosody of interrupted song and oerly harmonious little erses" poetry now rea,hes a domain foreer beyond the proper and the improper" salation and ruin) 5his is the unappropriable lega,y that #aproni@s e-propriated manner leaes to Italian poetry" and that no benefit of inentory will permit it to elude) Hie an animal whose mutation has ,arried it so far outside its spe,ies that we ,an neither assign it to another phylon nor now if it will pass its mutation on to others" poetry88now both unre,ogni:able and all too familiar8has definitiely be,ome a res amissa for us) 5his is why it is impossible to say whether een one of all the poetry boos that are being published and that will ,ertainly ,ontinue to be published will be at the leel of the eent that has happened here) 7e ,an only say that here something ends foreer and something begins" and that what begins begins only in what ends)
§ - T%e ele.ration of t%e Hidden Treasure I own the ,opy of Spino:a Ethics that belonged to Elsa Morante? it was gien to me by #arlo #e,,hi in remembran,e of Elsa) It is the edition published in Sansoni 1Classici della filosofia1 series in 196/" and it reprodu,es the Hatin te-t and notes of Gioanni Gentile@s 1912 Hater:a edition" adding to it an Italian translation by Gaetano =urante) Elsa@s spe,ial eneration for Spino:a is illustrated" as you now" by his lo,ation at the top of the mo, genealogi,al tree in her 1Canone degli %P% e degli 8%M%1 % 1Canone of the )appy e2 and the @nhappy Many1 ( alongside Simone 7eil" Giordano 3runo" Grams,i" 4imbaud" Mo:art" oan of Ar," Gioanni 3ellini" !lato" and 4embrandt) As I write this list" I noti,e that the philosophers are in the maority) 5his might be a point of departure for an inestigation of Elsa@s relation to philosophy" whi,h is anything but settled? but this is not the proe,t I wish to pursue) It is not surprising" then" that the ,opy of the Ethics in
same right oer them as they oer us) Indeed" sin,e eery indiidual@s right is defined by his irtue or power" man@s right oer beasts is far greater than their rights oer man) I do not deny that beasts feel? I am denying that we are on that a,,ount debarred from paying heed to our own adantage and from maing use of them as we please and dealing with them as best suits us" seeing that they do not agree with us in nature and their emotions are different in nature from human emotions) 2 5he reasons for Elsa@s disagreement seem all too obious) Moreoer" Spino:a@s thesis is in some way an affront to our sensibility" and it brings to mind an episode in the biography of the philosopher that has often been ,ontrasted with his image* $Be looed"$ #olerus writes" $for spiders" whi,h he would then for,e to fight against one another" or else for flies" whi,h he would ,ast into the spider@s web? and he obsered these battles with so mu,h pleasure that he often burst out laughing)$ I must pause on this point" but neither to ,larify a problem in the interpretation of Spino:a nor to defend the ,oheren,e of the philosopher) 4ather" I wish to ,ast some light on the reasons for his disagreement with Elsa" whi,h may in fa,t be less obious than appears at first sight) At the end of the passage that I ust ,ited" Spino:a refers to the s,holium of proposition 2& of !art 5hree) $Ben,e it follows"$ Spino:a writes" that the emotions of animals that are ,alled irrational %for now that we now the origin of mind we ,an by no means doubt that beasts hae feelings( differ from the emotions of men as mu,h as their nature differs from human nature) Borse and man are indeed ,arried away by lust to pro,reate" but the former by e
as in Spino:a" the diergen,e between forms of life" the dis,ordant plurality of the different modes of e-pressing a single substan,e) It is instead a fra,ture that passes through the inside of life itself" diiding it lie the sharpest blade a,,ording to whether or not it remained in Eden and whether or not it was ,ontaminated by the shadow of nowledge) !ure animal life %whi,h is ,learly also present in the natural life of man( and human life" Edeni, e-isten,e and the nowledge of good and eil" nature and language* these are the edges of the wound that the udeo#hristian inheritan,e mared in Elsa@s thought" and that separate her from her beloed ,ats far more than Spino:a was diided from his spiders and other so8,alled $irrational beasts)$ et if this is true" if what 3aru,h did not understand is this irreparable fra,ture" how ,an it then be that the philosopher@s name figures %by irtue of a ,hoi,e whi,h the manus,ripts show to hae been meditated( at the summit of the genealogi,al tree in Canone" under the title $the ,elebration of the hidden treasure$D I hae often ased myself what the meaning of this singular formula ,ould be) 7hat ,elebration is at issue hereD And what is its hidden treasureD And how did Elsa ,ome to be re,on,iled with 3aru,hD A hint of a possible answer is ,ontained in Elsa@s dis,ussion of the relation between light and bodies in her te-t on 3eato Angeli,o) $#olors"$ Elsa writes" $are a gift of light" whi,h maes use of bodies ) ) ) to transform its inisible ,elebration into an epiphany) ) ) ) It is well nown that to the eyes of idiots %poor and ri,h alie( the hierar,hy of splendors ,ulminates in the sign of gold) +or those who do not now the true" inner al,hemy of light" earthly mines are the pla,e of a hidden treasure)$ 5he $,elebration of the hidden treasure$ is therefore the be,oming isible" in bodies" of the al,hemy of light) 5his al,hemy is both a spirituali:ation of matter and a materiali:ation of light) And it is this $,elebration$ that the nowledge of the third ind reealed to Spino:asu' Buadam aeternitatis specie) 5he late en,ounter with 3eato Angeli,o thus ,oin,ides with a $Spino:ist$ moment in whi,h Elsa sets aside her tragi, $preudi,es$ and Edeni, mythology to approa,h her supreme ision" whi,h8lie ,omprehension in Spino:a88is far more despairing than eery tragedy and far more festie than eery ,omedy) Bere the re,on,iliation with Spino:a is important" for it a,ts as a ,ounterbalan,e to a temptation in Elsa that was ,ertainly strong) All greatness ,ontains an inner threat with whi,h it is in ,onstant ,ombat and to whi,h it at times su,,umbs) And eery ,omprehension of a wor that does not eep in mind this part of the shadow %whi,h is absolutely not of the psy,hologi,al order( riss falling into hagiography) +or Elsa" this shadowy part ,oin,ides with the tragi,o8sa,rifi,ial mythology that identifies the ,reature@s bare life as the most absolute inno,en,e and as the most e-treme guilt" as san,tity and as maledi,tion" and as darness and as light) 5his mythology taes these two aspe,ts to be indistinguishable" a,,ording to the ambiguous meaning %whi,h is wrongly thought to be original( of the ade,tie sacer ) It is a ,on,eption of this ind that leads Simone 7eil" in her Cahiers" to eoe the figure of the s,apegoat" in whom sa,rifi,ial inno,en,e and guilt" san,tity and abe,tion" i,tim and e-e,utioner are founded for the sae of ,atharsis) It is ne,essary to re,ogni:e this temptation in both Morante and 7eil for what it is" and to sear,h in their own wor for the antidotes ,ontained there when they refuse the temptation of the spirit of the desert) +or Elsa" this is the moment at whi,h she abandons the first and the third of Jafa@s hypotheses for the sae of the se,ond88that of the irreparable and retroa,tie destru,tion of paradise) And it ,oin,ides with the turn mared by the se,ond half of the 196s %in parti,ular by 196'" thans to a ind of ironi, histori,al ,ipher(" whi,h #esare Garboli has powerfully re,onstru,ted in psy,hologi,al terms and whi,h I would lie to attempt to understand from a philosophi,al perspe,tie) In the ,olle,tion of aphorisms that Jafa ,omposed in Vurau between 191& and 191' and that Ma- 3rod pompously entitled 'ser,ations on Sin! Pain! )ope and the True ay " we find the following singular statement" whi,h seems to me to ,ontain the epitome of the shift at issue* $5he fa,t that only the spiritual world e-ists depries us of hope and gies us ,ertainty)$ In >ine $oors" XrX Hanger holds that this is $the most beautiful Bassidi, do,trine$*
5he most beautiful Bassidi, tea,hing is without doubt the do,trine of the spirituality of matter) A,,ording to this do,trine" all of matter is full of the spiritual spars of diine holiness) 5he purely physi,al e-pressions of human life88lie eating and drining" washing and sleeping" dan,ing and the a,t of loe88are demateriali:ed by Bassidism and transformed into nobler religious e-er,ises) It is liely that Elsa new this te-t) 3ut" from the Jafaes
> / T%e End of t%e Poem My plan" as you ,an see summari:ed before you in the title of this le,ture" is to define a poeti, institution that has until now remained unidentified* the end of the poem) 5o do this" I will hae to begin with a ,laim that" without being triial" stries me as obious88namely" that poetry lies only in the tension and differen,e %and hen,e also in the irtual interferen,e( between sound and sense" between the semioti, sphere and the semanti, sphere) 5his means that I will attempt to deelop in some te,hni,al aspe,ts CalOry@s definition of poetry" whi,h aobson ,onsiders in his essays in poeti,s* 1The poem: a prolonged hesitation 'et2een sound and sense1 +Le pome! hsitation prolonge entre le son et le Sens0) 7hat is a hesitation" if one remoes it altogether from the psy,hologi,al dimensionD Awareness of the importan,e of the opposition between metri,al segmentation and semanti, segmentation has led some s,holars to state the thesis %whi,h I share( a,,ording to whi,h the possibility of enambment ,onstitutes the only ,riterion for distinguishing poetry from prose) +or what is enambment" if not the opposition of a metri,al limit to a synta,ti,al limit" of a prosodi, pause to a semanti, pauseD $!oetry$ will then be the name gien to the dis,ourse in whi,h this opposition is" at least irtually" possible? $!rose$ will be the name for the dis,ourse in whi,h this opposition ,annot tae pla,e) Medieal authors seem to hae been perfe,tly ,ons,ious of the eminent status of this opposition" een if it was not until i,ol 5ibino %in the fourteenth ,entury( that the following perspi,uous definition of enambment was formulated* $It often happens that the rhyme ends" without the meaning of the senten,e haing been ,ompleted$ %Multiocens enim accidit Buod! finita consonantia! adhuc sensus orationis non est finitus() All poeti, institutions parti,ipate in this non,oin,iden,e" this s,hism of sound and sense88 rhyme no less than ,aesura) +or what is rhyme if not a disun,tion between a semioti, eent %the repetition of a sound( and a semanti, eent" a disun,tion that brings the mind to e-pe,t a meaningful analogy where it ,an find only homophonyD Cerse is the being that dwells in this s,hism? it is a being made of murs et pali:" as 3runetto Hatini wrote" or an Ttre de suspens" in MallarmO@s phrase) And the poem is an organism grounded in the per,eption of the limits and endings that define88without eer fully ,oin,iding with" and almost in intermittent dispute withsonorous %or graphi,( units and semanti, units)
=ante is fully ,ons,ious of this when" at the moment of defining the canone through its ,onstitutie elements in $e ,ulgari eloBuentia %II" IQ" .8/(" he opposes cantio as unit of sense %sententia( to stantiae as purely metri,al units* And here you must now that this word stanaF was ,oined solely for the purpose of dis,ussing poeti, te,hniam Buemadmodum cantio est gremium totius sententiae! sic stantia totam artem ingremiat nec licet aliBuid artis seBuenti'us adrogare! sed solam artem antecedentis induere)( =ante thus ,on,eies of the stru,ture of the canone as founded on the relation between an essentially semanti," global unit %$the lap of the whole meaning$( and essentially metri,al" partial units %$enlaps the whole te,hni
7e hae seen how the poem tena,iously lingers and sustains itself in the tension and differen,e between sound and sense" between the metri,al series and the synta,ti,al series) 3ut what happens at the point at whi,h the poem endsD #learly" here there ,an be no opposition between a metri,al limit and a semanti, limit) 5his mu,h follows simply from the triial fa,t that there ,an be no enambment in the final erse of a poem) 5his fa,t is ,ertainly triial? yet it implies ,onse
;r" on the ,ontrary" are sound and sense now foreer separated without any possible ,onta,t" ea,h eternally on its own side" lie the two se-es in Cigny@s poemD In this ,ase" the poem would leae behind it only an empty spa,e in whi,h" a,,ording to MallarmO@s phrase" truly rien naura lieu Bue le lieu) Eerything is ,ompli,ated by the fa,t that in the poem there are not" stri,tly speaing" two series or lines in parallel flight) 4ather" there is but one line that is simultaneously traersed by the semanti, ,urrent and the semioti, ,urrent) And between the flowing of these two ,urrents lies the sharp interal obstinately maintained by poeti, mechanZ) %Sound and sense are not two substan,es but two intensities" two tonoi of the same linguisti, substan,e)( And the poem is lie the *atechon in !aul@s Se,ond Epistle to the 5hessalonians %.*&8'(* something that slows and delays the adent of the Messiah" that is" of him who" fulfilling the time of poetry and uniting its two eons" would destroy the poeti, ma,hine by hurling it into silen,e) 3ut what ,ould be the aim of this theologi,al ,onspira,y about languageD 7hy so mu,h ostentation to maintain" at any ,ost" a differen,e that su,,eeds in guaranteeing the spa,e of the poem only on ,ondition of depriing it of the possibility of a lasting a,,ord between sound and senseD Het us now reread what =ante says about the most beautiful way to end a poem" the pla,e in whi,h the last erses fall" rhymed" in silen,e) 7e now that for him it is a matter of a rule) 5hin" for instan,e" of the enoi of $#osY nel mio parlar oglio esser aspro)$ Bere the first erse ends with an absolutely unrelated rhyme" whi,h ,oin,ides %and ,ertainly not by ,han,e( with the word that names the supreme poeti, intention* donna" $lady)$ 5his unrelated rhyme" whi,h seems to anti,ipate a point of ,oin,iden,e between sound and sense" is followed by four erses" lined in ,ouplets a,,ording to the rhyme that Italian metri,al tradition ,alls ba,iata %$issed$(* #an:on" attene dritto a
A,,endi+ A An Enigma oncerning t%e 0asue 2oman In the prefa,e %or" rather" the e-tremely long ra:o( added to the se,ond edition of 8l ricordo della Aasca in 196/" Antonio =elfini defines his story as $a pasti,he that no one understood)$ Be then warns his readers against the temptation of asing" $7hy a 3as
If the 3as
biographers) +or now it suffi,es to hae been able to ,ontribute in some way to the understanding of an enigma %or" rather" a $pasti,he$( that still remains to be fully soled) In Mar,h 199/" after this arti,le had been published in the issue of the ournal Mar*a that is deoted to =elfini" I re,eied a letter from 3ernard Simeone" a +ren,h professor of Italian literature" in whi,h he wrote* I had o,,asion to read your te-t" 19n Enigma Concerning the AasBue oman!1 in the ,ompany of a 3asdream e
0 T%e Hunt for &anguage In the 3ible" the e-emplary hunter is the giant emrod" the same one to whom tradition attributes the proe,t of the tower of 3abel" whose summit was to tou,h the sy) 5he author of Genesis defines him as $a mighty hunter before the Hord$ %1*9( %or rather $against the Hord"$ as we read in the older Hatin" $Itala$ ersion(" and this emrod for his 1ill thought1 +mal coto0 2ith the loss of meaningful language +1for e,ery language is to him as his is to others! 2hich is *no2n to none1 Nch cos a lui ciascun linguaggio D comel suo ad altrui! cha nullo notoO0: he can only utter senseless sounds +#aphl may amch a'W almi0 or! as a hunter! sound his horn +1Stupid soul! *eep to your horn and 2ith that ,ent yourself1 N9nima sciocca D tienti col corno! e con Buel ti disfogaO0% hat did >emrod huntX 9nd 2hy is his hunt 1against (od1X 8f the punishment of Aa'el 2as the confusion of languages! it is li*ely that >emrods hunt had to do 2ith an artificial impro,ement of the one human language that 2as to grant reason unlimited po2er% $ante at least suggests this much 2hen! in characteriing the perfidy of the giants! he spea*s of an 1instrument of the mind1 +argomento della mente0 + 8nferno! QQQ8! <<0%
Is it mere ,han,e that in $e ,ulgari eloBuentia =ante also ,onstantly presents his own sear,h for the $illustrious erna,ular$ in terms of a hunt %$we are hunting down language$ I" QI" 1F? $what we are hunting for$ I" QC" 'F? $our hunting arms$ I" QCI" .F( and that language is thus assimilated to a fero,ious beast" a pantherD At the origins of the Italian literary tradition" the sear,h for an illustrious poeti, language is pla,ed under the disturbing sign of emrod and his titani, hunt" almost as if to signify the mortal ris impli,it in eery sear,h for language that sees in some way to restore its originary splendor) 5he $hunt for language$ is both an antidiine arrogan,e that e-alts the ,al,ulating power of the word and an amorous sear,h that wants to remedy 3abeli, presumption) Eery serious human effort in language must always ,onfront this ris) ∼
In #aproni@s late poetry" these two themes are brought so ,lose that they ,oin,ide in the idea of an obsessie and fero,ious hunt whose obe,t is language itself" a hunt that unites the bibli,al giant@s ,hallenge to the limits of language with =ante@s pious eneration) 5he two aspe,ts of human language % emrod@s naming and the poet@s amorous sear,h( hae now be,ome indistinguishable) And the hunt is truly a mortal e-perien,e whose prey88 spee,h88is a beast that" as #aproni says" $animates and ills$ and that" $tame and atro,ious"$ on,e again88for what is perhaps the last time8wears the spe,led ,oat of =ante@s panther %but a $nebulous panther"$ a $sui,idal$ panther() Spee,h now turns to its own logi,al power? it says itself and" in this e-treme poeti, gesture" grasps only its own foolishness and appears only in its own dispersion) 5he $trumpet$ that ,an be heard to $e,ho$ in the interrupted musi, of the late #aproni is the last" muffled resonan,e of emrod@s raing $high horn"$ of the $mighty hunter before the Hord)$
T%e 3ust Do Not Feed on &ig%t In May 196" !aul #elan met elly Sa,hs for the first time) It was the +east of the As,ension" and while the two poets were speaing in front of the ,athedral %$we spoe of your God"$ #elan writes" $and I spoe against him$( it seemed to them that a golden light shone from the water in whi,h the faLade was refle,ted) A few months later" the two friends met again in !aris" in #elan@s home) $7hile we were speaing at our home for the se,ond time about God" about your God" the one that is waiting for you" the golden light shone on the wall)$ ears later" announ,ing to his friend the imminent publi,ation of adensonnen % 196'(" #elan wrote* $5han you for your lines" for the remembran,e of that light) es" that light) ou will find it named in my ne-t ,olle,tion" whi,h is ,oming out in April" named88,alled by a Bebrew name)$ 5he poem at issue is the one that begins 1>ah! im 9orten'ogen1 * >ah! im 9orten'ogen! 8m )ell'lut: das )ell2ort ) Mutter #ahel 2eint nicht mehr% #'ergetragen alles (e2einte) Still" in den Uranarterien! unumschnrt: \i2! Genes Licht ) 1
%ear" in the aorta8ar,h" in the bright blood* the bright word) Mother 4ahel no longer ,ries) Eerything ,ried88,arried oer) uiet" in the ,oronary arteries" untied* Viw" that light)( \i2 is the term with whi,h the Jabbalists name the splendor of the She*hina! that is! the di,ine manifestation% 9nd in the 2orld to come! the Gust feed on this light% T2o years later! the image of light returned as a *ey2ord in the ne=t collection! Licht2ang% Aut this time it 2as a matter of a 1light compulsion1 that *eeps human creatures! 2ho are lost and huddled as if in a 2ood! from touching themsel,es: ir lagen schon tief in der Macchia! als du endlich heran*rochst% $och *onnten 2ir nicht hin'erdun*eln u dir: es herrschte Licht2ang% +e 2ere lying deep in the macchia! 'y the time you crept up at last% Aut 2e could not dar*en o,er to you: light compulsion reigned%0 6 8n &anuary -..-! 2hen Eugenio $e Signori'us composed his Aelliche series! he! too! in,o*ed something li*e a glimmer! a light% 9ccording to a tradition still ali,e in $ante! 1the form of light1 is identical to the di,ine su'stance and is the cipher of the perfect transparen,y of a thining that" in thining itself" thins all things) 5his light is now %sin,e whenD( fra,tured into a $hypo,riti,al bea,on$ that lights up the night and in whose seri,e there are $tinselwearers$ and $prayer8predators$ whose language bals at $following the ,ourse > of the ,ommon good"$ and a $defenseless" unredeemed light$ that sear,hes gropingly for its brothers in an inhospitable world* Luce inerme! irredenta luce che 'ruci nel mondo inospitale tra i solchi scellerati e i cancelli fissati dalla mente criminale % % % nellangolo cieco o nel ,uoto delle stane tu sei! o nel pianto del luminWo campale % % % il faro ipocrita illumina le 'ande ma tu esisti! e cerchi i tuoi fratelli ) %=efenseless" unredeemed light" you who burn in the inhospitable world" between the wi,ed furrows and gates fi-ed in the ,rim8 inal mind ) ) ) you are in the blind ,orner or the emptiness of rooms" or in the lament of the battle8field glare ) ) ) the hypo,riti,al bea,on lights up the troops" but you e-ist and sear,h for your brothers)( 5he off8s,reen oi,e that speas this ,ompletely profane light seems to ,ome from nowhere88or from a teleision that someone has forgotten to turn off" a teleision that shows houses leeled to the ground" Ira< in flames" the $ele,tro,uted stare$ of ,hildren)
Host" sub8 or para8human" lie that of a ust human being who has learned to fast on \i2! this ,oice has realied the prophetic omen of 9ssassinii: Sopra la loro testa di,isa possano uccelli e ,ermi partare% +9'o,e their di,ided head 'irds and 2orms can spea*%0 5he poet who" $in the eening of the ,entury"$ speas with this oi,e88a oi,e so lowly that it ,annot be re,ogni:ed" and so strong that it ,an barely be heard88new how to name the $,rooed fa,e of the world)$ Be is perhaps the greatest engaged poet of his generation" and the Italian poetry that is to ,ome88the poetry that will" of ,ourse" hae to fast on light88will be in,essantly for,ed to ,onfront him)
D Taking &ea4e of Traged! My friendship with Elsa Morante began twenty8two years ago" on the small train that traels through the 4oman ,ountryside from !ia::ale +laminio to Citerbo) Elsa was going to see her mother" who was re,oering in a nursing home in Citerbo) 7il,o," whom I had met a few months before" had ,hosen that ery day to introdu,e us) Elsa left us at the Citerbo train station" and we met up again an hour later) It was not easy for Elsa to see the ailing patient) Elsa@s mother suffered from partial dementia following a serious form of arterios,lerosis" and she did not re,ogni:e her daughter) 3ut in looing at her mother" Elsa had the impression of seeing herself in that fa,e framed by tufts of white hair) She went away frightened) She told me years later that this was why she preferred to dye her prematurely graying hair) %In the 4oman ,lini, where Elsa spent the last three years of her life" when she had not been dyeing her hair for some time and she sometimes momentarily seemed not to re,ogni:e me" I was reminded of our first meeting)( +rom that day on" our intense" almost feerish friendship began) 7e saw ea,h other eery day" sometimes from morning till eening) Elsa was ery free when she was not writing) In the morning we would hae breafast outside 4ome" or on the old Cia Atti,a" at the $I trenini$ bistro? in the eening we would go to some restaurant in the ,enter) In addition to younger friends" !ier !aolo !asolini" Sandro !enna" atalia and Gabriele 3aldini" and #esare Garboli were also often present) I was twenty8one years old then" and I will neer forget the support88,apri,ious but in,omparable88that Elsa@s friendship gae me) 3ut if I as myself now what it was that so stru, me from the ery first meeting" what it was that I always found in Elsa" I ,an only say* she was serious" wildly serious) I do not mean $serious$ in the sense of someone who taes eerything as true and with graity) Een without taing a,,ount of her readings of the Indian ,lassi,s" Elsa was ery aware that the world is only appearan,e %remember the $subersie refrain$ from 8l mondo sal,ato dai ragaini D() Ber seriousness was instead that of someone who ,ompletely and unreseredly beliees in +i,tion and" therefore" means to say eerything that it says) In 9li'i " that e-traordinary ,olle,tion of poems that went almost unnoti,ed at the time of its publi,ation in 192' and that is in fa,t one of the great boos of Italian postwar poetry" there is a poem that ,ontains a pre,ious ey to Elsa@s fantasti, world) It is the one ,alled $Alla faola$ and begins" $I ,oer myself with you" +i,tion > foolish garment$ %$i te! inione D mi cingo! D fatua ,este() 5his is why" gien the two possible relationships to language88tragedy and ,omedy88Elsa instin,tiely adhered to the tragi, one) Ingeborg 3a,hmann %whom Elsa and I met and saw fre
Is there redemption from this punishmentD In a poem" Ingeborg turns to spee,h" to punishment itself" to as for salation* $;h my spee,h" sae meK$ 3ut for Elsa" there seems to be neither es,ape nor redemption from the punishment of language) 7hen I told her" many years later" that I was writing a boo ,alled Language and $eath" she ,ommented* $Hanguage and deathD Hanguage is deathK$ %8l linguaggio e la morteX 8l linguaggio la morteY( 5his is why Elsa@s wor appears as one of the few truly tragi, wors in a literary tradition88 the Italian tradition88that has remained so obstinately faithful to the antitragi, intention of the $i,ine Comedy ) 3ut in Elsa %and this was perhaps her #hristian inheritan,e(" it is as if inside tragedy there were another tragedy that resisted it" su,h that the tragi, ,onfli,t e-plodes" not between guilt and inno,en,e but between two in,ommensurable punishments) Another poem from 9li'i formulates the law that broe her heart in this way* $5here is no Elysium outside limbo)$ As is well nown" limbo is the pla,e not of inno,ents but rather of those who hae no other guilt than natural guilt" of those infants who ,ould not hae been submitted to the punishment of language and to whom Elsa looed loingly for her whole life) 5he baptism of the Cerb ,an,els this natural guilt" but it ,an,els it only through another" more atro,ious punishment) 3ut in Elsa it is as if" at a ,ertain point" the ,reature from limbo lifted its fragile arm against the histori,al tragedy of a language in a hopeless gesture" in a silent ,onfrontation whose out,ome ,annot easily be understood) I often ased myself in the last months" when the tragi, part of Elsa@s life had grown beyond eery measure" whether there was not an antitragi, gleam in her" whether her tragedy was not" in some way" an antitragic tragedy ) Eery tragedy ,ertainly proe,ts a ,omi, shadow" and whoeer new Elsa remembers the in,redible little songs that only she new and with whi,h she ,ould mae her friends laugh if she wanted %there is a tra,e of them in the distra,ted refrains with whi,h she lied to fill up her noels() 3ut this is not what I mean) 4ather" it is sometimes as if Elsa adhered so tena,iously to tragi, fi,tion that it opened up a path beyond itself" toward something that is no longer tragi, %een if it also ,annot be ,alled ,omi,() In this path" without punishment or redemption" we momentarily ga:e upon pure +i,tion before demons bring it to Bell or angels ,arry it away to the sy) And this moment88in whi,h fi,tion is seen and spee,h e-piated88is a departure from tragedy) ;nly at this point does Elsa@s poetry show its shining phoeni-" its eternal ash)
Notes 85 omed! 1)
5he inability to gie een a ,oherent e-planation of the poems title is ,ommon to almost all the medieal ,ommentators" from !ietro Alighieri to a,opo della Hana and the Anonymous of +loren,e) As Eri,h Auerba,h has noted" howeer" 3enenuto da Imola stands out among all others for haing first formulated the argument88so often repeated by modern ,riti,s88that =ante@s poem is" as to its material" at on,e tragedy" satire" and ,omedy %$hi, est tragoedia" satyra et ,omoedia$(" yet owes its title to stylisti, ,onsiderations %$dico Buod auctor ,oluit ,ocare li'rum Comoedia a stylo infimo et ,ulgari $() See Aen,enuti de #am'aldis de 8mola Comentum super $antis 9ligheriG nunc primum integre in lucem editum % +loren,e* G) 3arbera" 1''&(" 1* 1'8 19)
.)
$I do not now how to e-plain the fa,ts e-,ept by supposing that =ante must hae made the ,hoi,e of the title fairly early on) A poeti, narration in the high style was at that point and always ,ontinued to be for him tragedy? and" therefore" no wor desered that designation more than Cirgil@s poem) 3ut when ,onfronted with Cirgil" =ante is oer,ome with feelings of reeren,e and admiration" feelings he attributes to Sordello and Statius in the Purgatorio% 8f irgils 2or* 2as therefore a tragedy! $antes o2n could only 'e a comedy% )e 2as! moreo,er! determined to 2rite in the ,ernacular and 8 thus conclude that he did not yet ha,e as high an opinion of the ,ernacular as he 2as to ha,e in the Con,i,io! e,en if he had already reGected the strict notions of the ita no,a + Pio #aGna! 18l titolo del poema dantesco!1 Studi danteschi 4 N -.6-O: 3<0% 8t is unfor tunate to see su,h an unsatisfying e-planation in the re,ent Enciclopedia dantesca %see 1Commedia () ;n the problem of Commedia@s title" see also M) !orena" 18l titolo della Commedia!1 4end) A,,) Hin,ei" 68IQ8 19//? E Ma::oni" $H@epistola a #angrande"$ Studi Monte,erdi % Modena(" 1929 %now in Contri'uti di filologia dantesca +loren,e* Sansoni" 1966F(? and Manlio !astore8 Sto,,hi" $Mussato e la tragedia"$ in $ante e la cultura ,eneta % +iren:e* H) S) ;ls,hi" 1966() ;n =ante@s $,omi, style"$ see Alfredo S,hiaffini " $ 9 proposito dello stile comico di $ante"$ in Momenti di storia della lingua italiana % 4ome* Studium" 192/(? and" aboe all" the obserations in Gianfran,o #ontini" 1@tinterpretaione di $ante1 and $ilologia e esegesi dantesca"$ now both ,olle,ted in @nidea di $ante % 5urin* Einaudi" 19&6() Eri,h Auerba,h" Mimesis: The #epresentation of #eality in the estern orld " trans) 7illard 4) 5ras % !rin,eton" ))* !rin,eton Uniersity !ress" 192/(" p) 1'6)
/) 0)
Ibid)" p) 1'&)
2)
Gioanni 3o,,a,,io" 8l commento alla $i,ina Commedia e gli altri scritti intorno a $ante! ed% $% (uerri + Aari: Latera! -.-50! -: --<% The 8talian te=t reads as follo2s: 1Che adunBue diremo delle o'ieioni fatteX Credo! conciosiacosach oculatissimo uomo! lui non a,ere a,uto riguardo alle parti che nella commedia si contengono! ma at tutto! e da Buello a,ere il suo li'ro dinominato! figurati,amente parlando% 8l tutto della commedia +per Buello che per Plauto e per Terenio! che furono poeti comici! si puH comprehendere0: che la commedia a''ia tur'olento principio e pieno di romori e di discordie! e poi lultima parte di Buella finisca in pace e in tranBuillit"% 9l Bual tutto ottimamente conforme il li'ro presente: percioch egli incomincia da dolori e dalle tur'aioni infernali e finisce nel riposo e nella pace e nella gloria! la Buale hanno i 'eati in ,ita eterna% E Buesto dee poter 'astare a fare che cosW fatto nome si possa di ragione con,enire a Buesto li'ro%1
6)
$e ,ulgari eloBuentia! ed% and trans% Stephen Aotterill + Cam'ridge! Eng%: Cam'ridge @ni,ersity Press! -../0! 88! 8! 5! pp% <5J<.%
&)
Ibid)" II" CIII" '" pp) &18&/)
')
=ante@s le-i,ographi, sour,es hae been indi,ated by !aget 5oynbee " $ante Studies and #esearches % Hondon* Methuen" 19&.( and 4ana" 18l titolo del poema dantesco%1 5hat =ante s,holarship has sear,hed for the poet@s sour,es in only le-i,ographi, and grammati,al treatises is" howeer" to our eyes one of the reasons why it has been unable to deelop a more profound understanding of the problem of the poems ,omi,
9)
title) $antis 9laghierii Epistolae The Letters of $ante" ed) and trans) !aget 5oynbee % ;-ford* ;-ford Uniersity !ress" 1966(" Letter Q " \1" p) 1&2? trans) p) .)
1) =ante Alighieri" The $i,ine Comedy! 8nferno" trans) #harles Singleton % !rin,eton" ))* !rin,eton Uniersity !ress" 19&(" QQ" 11/" pp) .1811) All subseam poeta illic et introductae personae loBuuntur $() ;n this ,lassifi,ation see Ernst 4obert #urtius@s obserations in 1E=cursus 1 %dedi,ated to late an,ient literary studies(" in European Literature and the Latin Middle 9ges" trans) 7illard 4) 5ras % !rin,eton" ))* !rin,eton Uniersity !ress" 192/(" pp) 0/6802) 1.) #hetorica ad )erennium! 8 " '* $Sunt % % % tria genera! Buae genera nos figuras appellamus! in Bui'us omnis ratio non ,itiosa consumitur: unam gra,em! alteram mediocrem! tertiam e=tenuata ,ocamus% (ra,is est! Buae constat e= ,er'orum gra,ium magna et ornata constructione mediocris est! Buae constat e= humiliore! neBue tamen e= infima et per,ulgatissima ,er'orum dignitate attenuata est! Buae demissa est usBue ad usitatissimam puri sermonis consuetudinem)$ +or the medieal deelopment of these ideas %of whi,h an e-ample ,an be found in Isidore@s theory of the three modi dicendi " in Etymologiae! 88 " 1&( and for their relation to the distin,tion between tragedy and ,omedy" see 7ilhelm #loetta " Aeitrge ur Literaturgeschichte des Mittelalters und der #enaissance % Balle* iemeyer" 1'9(" 1* .08.2? and Edmond +aral" Les arts potiBues du Q88 et Q888 sicle % !aris* #hampion" 196.(" pp) '6ff) 1/) In $e ,ulgari eloBuentia % II" IC" 2(" =ante still holds to the prealent tripartition and also lists the elegy alongside tragedy and ,omedy) In Matthew of Cend]me@s 9rs ,ersificatoria! comedy appears as the third style! after tragedy and satire! and 'efore the elegy: 1Tertia surrepit co moedia! cotidiano ha'itu! humilito capite! nullius festi,itatis pratendens delicias$ % +aral" Les arts potiBues! p% -<30% $antes oldest commentators also *no2 four poetic styles% 8n this conte=t! the letter to Cangrande mar*s a passage from a tripartition +or Buadropartition0 to a Gu=taposition! a passage for 2hich precedents cannot easily 'e found% 10) $And there are other inds of poeti,al narration" su,h as the pastoral poem" the elegy" the satire" and the otie song" as may be gathered from Bora,e in The 9rt of Poetry ? but of these we need say nothing at present$ %Sunt et alia genera narrationum poticarum! scilicet carmen 'ucolicum! elegia! satira! et sententia ,oti,a! ut etiam per ratium patere potest in sua poetria sed de istis ad praesens nihil dicendum est ( % $antis 9laghierii Epistolae! ^ -?" p) 1&&? trans) p) .1() It should be noted that in the treatment of ,omedy and tragedy ,ontained in Aristotle Poetics" the two genres are not e-pli,itly opposed to ea,h other) 5he only passage in whi,h Aristotle e-pli,itly opposes tragedy and ,omedy is $e generatione et corruptione %/12b(" in whi,h we read the ,omment" made in passing" that $with the same letters it is possible to write both tragedies and ,omedies)$ In his ,ommentary on this passage" St) 5homas writes as follows* $Et ponit e=emplum in sermoni'us Buorum prima principia indi,isi'ilia sunt litterae: e= eisdem autem litteris! transmutatis secundum ordinem aut positionem! fiunt di,ersi sermones! puta comoedia! Buae est sermo de re'us ur'anis! et tragoedia! Bua est sermo de re'us 'ellicis)$ Sancti Thomae 9Buinatis! doctoris angelica: pera omnia % 4ome* E- 5ypographi,a !olyglotta S) #) de !ropaganda +ide" 1''6(" /* .&2) 12) $#omi,a nonne ides ipsum reprehendere erba)$ =ante Alighieri" Ecl%! 8 " 2.) 16) See Auerba,hs@ obserations" whi,h show that the e-pression $lo,utio ulgaris" in
refer to the use of the Italian language* $It is diffi,ult to attribute su,h an idea to =ante" who defended the noble dignity of the erna,ular in his $e ,ulgari eloBuentia! 2ho 2as himself the founder of the ele,ated style in the ,ernacular through his canoni! and 2ho had finished the Comedy at the time 2hen he 2rote his letter to Cangrande%1 9uer'ach! Mimesis! p% -5/% 1&) Gioanni@s e-pression is* $Praetera nullus! Buos inter es agmine se=tus D nec Buem conseBueris coleo! sermone forensi D descripsit )$ See Lacorrispondena poetica di $ante e (io,anni di irgilio e lecloga di (io,anni al Mussatto! ed% (iuseppe 9l'ini + lorence: L% S% lsch*i! -./30% 1') $) ) ) di unhappy ending opposition) It should be noted that Aristotle does not say that the misfortune > good fortune inersion is ,omi,al" but says only that it is antitragi, %atragodotaton" whi,h 7illiam translates as intragodotatissimum() ./) 9ristoteles stagiritae omnia Buae e=tant opera cum 9,errois cordu'ensis % % % commentaris % Ceni,e* n)p)" 122.(" .* 91) .0) Ibid)" pp) 9189.) .2) $ 9liBui tamen introducunt in illis scenis tragicis imitationem ,itiorum et scelerum simul cum re'us lauda'ilis! cum ha'eant Buid peripetiae% erum ,ituperare ,itia est potius comoediae proprium Buam tragoedia)$ Ibid)" p) 91) .6) $e ,ulgari eloBuentia! 8! 8 " 082" pp) '89) .&) Jurt on +rit:" 9nti*e und Moderne TragVdie % 3erlin* de Gruyter" 196.() .') =ante" $i,ine Comedy! Paradiso! 88 " '2" pp) &68&&) .9) ;n the distin,tion between natural usti,e and personal usti,e" see #harles S) Singleton e-tremely a,ute obserations in &ourney to Aeatrice % 3altimore* ohns Bopins Uniersity !ress" 192'(" pp) ...82/) 5he distin,tion between natural guilt and personal guilt elaborated by the #hur,h +athers ,orresponds to +rit:@s distin,tion between obe,tie guilt and sube,tie guilt)
/) $uit enim peccatum 9dae in homine! Buod est in natura et in illo Bui ,ocatus est 9dam! Buod est in persona% Est tamen peccatum Buod BuisBue) ) )$ St) Anselm" $e conceptu ,irg% et de orig% peccato! in Migne! Patrologia Latina! -<5: 433% /1) $Ergo in eis +sc% pueris0 est aliBuid peccatum% Sed non peccatum actuale! Buia non ha'ent puer usum li'eri ar'itir! sine Buo nihil imputatur homini ad peccatum% % % % >ecesse est igitur dicere Buod in eis sit peccatum per originem traductum)$ =ii 5homae A<)" Summa contra gentiles % 4ome" 19.&(" p) 6/9) /.) St) Augustine" Concerning the City of (od! 9gainst the Pagans" trans) Benry 3ettenson % ew or" 19&.(" p) 2'.) //) St) Augustine" $e ci,itate $ei! Q8 " .) /0) St) Augustine" City of (od " p) 2'.) /2) $Si de illo peccato non fusset satisfactum per mortem Christi! adhuc essemus filii ire natura! natura scilicet depra,ata)$ =ante" $e monarchia! 6! 88! 6J3% /6) =ii 5homae" Summa contra gentiles" p) 62&) /&) St) 5homas" $e malo! .% 4! a%/! ad 4% )eretical mo,ements such as 9damism! 2hich! starting in the thirteenth century! preached free lo,e and the impecca'ility of the perfect Christian! are directed against this contradiction in Christian theology! 2hich *eeps ali,e natural guilt after redemption! if only in the form of a poena% /') $Est autem paene totus in affectione! licet in fine pathos ha'eat! u'i a'scessus 9eneae gignit dolorem% Sane totus in consiliis et su'tilitati'us est: nam paene comicus stilus est: nec mirum! u'i de amore tractatur )$ Serius" regarding 3oo IC of the 9eneid see Ser,ianorum in erg% Carmina Com% % ;-ford* ;-ford Uniersity !ress" 1962(" .* .0&) /9) ;n the essen,e of ,ourtly loe and =ante@s relation to it" see 4oger =ragonetti@s e-tremely a,ute obserations in $Lpisode de rancesca selon la con,ention courtoise"$ in 9u= frontires du langage potiBue +_tudes sur $ante! Mallarm! alry0" ol) 1 % Gent* 4omani,a Gandensia" 1961() 0) =ante" $i,ine Comedy! Purgatorio! Q88 " 90" pp) 1'08'2) 01) Ibid)" QCIII" /0869" pp) 1989/) 0.) Ibid)" QQQ" &'" pp) //8/1) 0/) Ibid)" QQQI" 0/802" pp) /0801) 00) Ibid)" QQQI" 60" p) /0.) 02) Ibid)" QQQI" 6'" pp) /0.80/) 06) =ante Alighieri" pere minori! ed% Cesare asoli and $omenico $e #o'ertis + Milan: #icciardi! -..<0! ,ol% 88! 6! Con,i,io! 4! Q8Q! 5J-?! pp% 746J43 $ante 18l Con,i,io1 +The AanBuet0! trans% #ichard )% Lansing + >e2 ]or*: (arland! -..?0! p% 6?<% 0&) =ante" pere minori " ol) II" -! Con,i,io! 3" CIII" 1? =ante 18l Con,i,io1 +The AanBuet0" p) 111) 5ranslation slightly modified) 0') ;n the ,on,eption and pra,ti,e of penitential humiliation in the twelfth ,entury and their influen,e on the uridi,al theory of ,rime as sin" see Mario =al !ra@s remars in !eter Abelard" Conosci te stesso! o Etica! ed% Mario $al Pra + lorence: La >uo,a 8talia! -.7/0! pp% 5/J57% 09) Singleton" &ourney to Aeatrice" pp) .28.1) It is ,urious that Singleton" who identified Matelda as the natural usti,e enoyed by man in !aradise" did not draw the ,onse
usus sine ardoris illece'roso stimulo) 2) See 3arnes" $=ante@s Matelda"$ 8talian Studies 65 % 19&/() 21) Epict% Ench%! Q88 * $4emember that you are lie an a,tor in the part that the playwright wanted to assign you* brief" if it is brief? long" if it is long) If he wants you to perform the part of the beggar" perform it well) =o the same for the party of a lame person" a magistrate" or an ordinary ,iti:en) +or your tas is to perform well the ,hara,ter that has been assigned to you? to ,hoose the ,hara,ter is that of another)$ Epict% $iss%! 8! QQ8Q " /9* $Is it perhaps in your power to ,hoose a sube,tD ou hae been assigned a ,ertain body" ,ertain parents" ,ertain brothers" a ,ertain homeland" a ,ertain ran) And now you ,ome to me and say" @Het@s ,hange the sube,t)@$ Epict% $iss%! 8! QQ8Q " 01* $5he day will soon ,ome when a,tors will beliee that they themseles are their mas and ,ostumes)$ 2.) Epict% $iss%! 8! QQ8 " 1681') 2/) 3oethius" The Theological Tractates and 1The Consolation of Philosophy!1 trans) B) +) Stewart" E) J) 4and" and S) ) 5ester % #ambridge" Mass)* Barard Uniersity !ress" 19&/(" pp) '68'&) 20) $>am illud Buidem manifestum est personae su'iectam esse naturam nec praeter naturam personam posse predicari )$ Ibid)" p) '.) 22) Medieal allegory" whi,h has been so often dis,ussed" ,an best be situated in the ,onte-t of the passage in whi,h 3oethius e-plains that a,,idents ,annot be,ome persons %$,idemus personam in accidenti'us non posse constitui: Buis enim dicat ullam al'edinis ,el nigredinis ,el magnitudinis esse personamD$ Ibid)" p) '. () 26) Purgatorio! QQQ " 6/" pp) //8/1) 2&) ;n this thesis" whi,h has its origin in CRlelt" see 7alter 3enamin@s remars in @rsprung des deutschen Trauerspiels! in alter AenGamin! (esammelte Schriften! ed% #olf Tiedemann and )ermann Sch2eppenhuser ! ,ol% 8! - +ran*furt am Main: Suhr*amp! -.740! pp% 67.J5? translated as The rigin of the (erman Tragic $rama! trans% &% s'orne + London: erso! -.770! pp% -??J-?6% 2') =ante" pere minori! ,ol% 88! 6! Con,i,io! 8! 8! 6?! p% <.< $ante 18l Con,i,io1 +The AanBuet0! p% -/<: 1Aetter 2ould it 'e for you to fly lo2 li*e a sparro2 than to soar aloft li*e a *ite o,er things that are totally 'ase1 +Meglio sare''e a ,oi come ronde ,olare 'asso! che come ni''io altissime rote fare sopra cose ,ilissime0%
"5 ?orn#? From Anatom! to Poetics 1)
The idas of the Trou'adours" trans) Margarita Egan % ew or* Garland" 19'0(" p) 9/) 5ranslation slightly modified)
.)
5he ,riti,al te-t of Arnaut used here is that edited by Mario Eusebi" 9rnaut $aniel! 8l Sir,entese e le Canoni % Milan* 9llinsegna del pesce doro" 19'0( %from whi,h I depart only in writing the name Ayna" as opposed to Ena()
/)
Ugo A) #anello" La ,ita e le opere del tro,atore 9rnaldo $aniello % Balle* iemeyer" 1''/(" p) 1'&)
0)
4) Haaud" $Les posies d9rnaut $aniel: #edition critiBue dXaprs Canello!$ in 9nnales du Midi 66 % 191( and ./ % 1911( % Genea* Slatine 4eprints" 19&/(" p) 9) 2) Gianluigi 5oa" 9rnaut $aniel! Canoni % +loren,e* Sansoni" 196(" p) 1'.) 6)
Mauri:io !erugi" Le Canoni di 9rnaut $aniel % Milan* 4i,,iardi" 19&'(" .*081)
&)
H) Ha::erini" $Cornar lo corn: Sulla tenone tra #aimon de $ufort! Truc Malec and 9rnaut $aniel "$ in Medioe,o romano ' % 19'18'/(* //980)
')
Eusebi" 9rnaut $aniel " pp) 18.)
9)
Andreas Beusler" $eutsche ersgeschichte % 3erlin* de Gruyter" 1926(" .*//.)
1) =e ulgari elo%&%: Princeton @ni,ersity Press! -.730! pp% -5J-.% /1) $e ,ulgari eloBuentia! 88 " '" 286" pp) &8&1) /.) Guglielmo Gorni" 8l nodo della lingua e il ,er'o damore % +loren,e* H) S) ;ls,hi" 19'1(" p) 01) //) =i Girolamo" Elementi di ,ersificaione! p% 6.% /0) Georges Hote" )istoire du ,ers franais % !aris* 3oiin" 1909(" 1*16&8&.) /2) $Et de,et sa'er Bue nos cossiram paua en dos manieras! la una cant a la sentensa: e segon aBuesta maniera en tot loc del 'ordo pot estar paua suspensi,a! plena o finals % % % en autra manera cossiram paua en Buant Bue la prendem por una alenada)$ Las lors del (ai Sa'er! estier dichas Las Leys d9mors! ed% 9dolphe % (atienJ9rnoult! 3 ,ols% + Toulouse: Typ% de &%JA% Paya! -54-J430! -:-3?% /6) Hote" )istoire du ,ers franKais! p% 6<6%
/&) $e ,ulgari eloBuentia! 88! 8Q " .8/" pp) &.8&/) Emphasis mine) /') Ibid)" II" Q" 1) /9) 4oger =ragonetti" $$ante face " >emrod: Aa'el mmoire et miroir de lEden"$ CritiBue /'&8/'' % 19&9(* &2) 0) Gorni" 8l nodo della lingua! p% 6.% 01) =ante 18l Con,i,io1 +The AanBuet0" trans) 4i,hard B) Hansing % ew or* Garland" 199(" pp) 92896) 5he Italian te-t reads as follows* 1PerH che li miei pensieri! di costei ragionando! moire fiate ,oleano cose conchiudere di lei che io non le oeta intendere! e smarri,ami! sW che Buasi parea di fuori alienato% % % % E Buesta luna ineffa'litade di Buello che io per tema ho preso e conseguentemente narro laltra % % % e dico che li miei pensieriJJche sono parlare damoreJJsonan sW dolci! che la mia anima! cio to mio affetto arde di poter ciH con la lingua narrare e perch dire not posso % % % Buesta laltra ineffa'ilitade cio che la lingua non di Buello che lontelletto ,ede compiutamente seguace % % % $ico adunBue che la mia insufficena procede doppiamente! sW come doppiamente trascende laltea di costei! per lo modo che detto % Ch a me con,iene lasciare per po,ert" dintelletto molto di Buello che ,ero di lei! e che Buasi ne la mia mente raggia! la Buale come corpo diafano rice,e Buello! non terminando: e Buesto dico in Buello seguente particula: E certo e mi con,en lasciare in pria% Poi Buando dico: E di Buel sintende! dico che non pur a Buello che lo mio intelletto non sostiene! ma eiando a Buello che io intendo sufficiente non sono! perH che la lingua mia non tanta fa cundia che dire potesse ciH che nel pensiero mio se ne ragiona)$ =ante Alighieri " pere minori! 88 " 1" ed) #esare Casoli and =omeni,o =e 4obertis % Milan* 4i,,iardi" 1992(" II" 1) 0.) Purgatorio" pp) 12821) 0/) Ibid)" QQCI" 168'" pp) .'08'2) 00) Ibid)" QQIC" 6186." pp) .6861) 02) Gorni" 8l nodo della lingua! p% 6?% 06) ^douard eaneau" ;uatre thmes rigniens % 5oronto* !ontifi,al Institute of Medieaal Studies" 19&'(" p) 11.)
$5 T%e Dream of &anguage 1)
Citations of )ypnerotomachia Poliphili refer to the critical edition of (io,anni Poi and Lucia 9% Ciapponi " . ols) % !adoa* Editrice 9ntenori " 196'()
.)
Maria 5eresa #asella8!o::i" rancesco Colonna: Aiografia e opere" . ols) % !adoa* Editrice 9ntenori= " 1929(" .*&9)
/)
A list of these delays and anomalies is gien ibid)" pp) 11&8.6" and is e-panded in )ypnerotomachia! 6*//8/2)
0)
I refer to the analysis in J) B) Stierle" 1Linguaggio assoluto e linguaggio strumentale in Mallarm!1 Metaphorein 3 % 19&'(*1&8/0)
2)
StOphane MallarmO" Selected Prose Poems! Essays! and Letters" trans) 3radford #oo % 3altimore* 5he ohns Bopins Uniersity !ress" 1926(" p) //)
6)
StOphane MallarmO" % Eu,res compltes! ed% )enri Mondor and C% &eanJ9u'ry + Paris: Pliade! -.4<0! p% 35/%
&)
Bans 7ilhelm Jlein" Latein und olgare in 8talien % Muni,h* M) Bueber" 192&()
')
Si,,o !olenton" Sicconis Polentoni Scriptorum illustrium latinae linguae li'ri Q888 " ed) 3) H) Ullmann % 4ome* Ameri,an A,ademy in 4ome" 19.'(" p) 1.9)
9)
Sperone Speroni" $ialogo delle lingue e dialogo della rettorica % Han,iano* 4) #arabba" 191.(" pp) 2082')
1) #laudio 5olomei" ,ited in Jlein" Latein und olgare! p% 56% 11) #arlo =ionisotti" 1>iccol Li'urnio e la cultura cortigiana!1 Letture 8taliane -4 % 196.(* /') 1.) 5he English translation of =ante Con,i,io ,ited here is that in =ante 18l Con,i,io1 +The AanBuet0" trans) 4i,hard B) Hansing % ew or* Garland" 199(" p) /1) 1/) Ibid)" p) &) 10) !o::i8#iapponi@s ,omment in )ypnerotomachia! 6*19) 12) +or a dis,ussion of this te-t" see Ernst 4obert #urtius" European Literature and the Latin Middle 9ges" trans) 7illard 4) 5ras % !rin,eton" ))* !rin,eton Uniersity !ress" 192/(" pp) /&08&') 5he translation ,ited is the one published in this wor)
'5 Pascoli and t%e T%oug%t of t%e (oice 1)
$Egli confonde la sua ,oce con la nostra % % % si sente un palpito solo! uno strillare e un guaire % % % tinnulo sBuillo come di campanello % % % udirne il chiacchiericcio)$
)5T%e Dictation of Poetr! 1)
St) Augustine" $e Trinitate! 8Q " 1" 12)
.)
=ante Alighieri" The $i,ine Comedy! Purgatorio" trans) #harles S) Singleton % !rin,eton" ))* !rin,eton Uniersity !ress" 19&/(" QQIC" 2'829" pp) .6861)
*5 E+,ro,riated Manner 1)
5he timing ,an be surmised gien the letter to Gianni =@Elia" the president of $Hengua"$ whi,h was sent together with the fourth and definitie draft of the poem)
.)
5his is the same sube,t that Jafa" in the years of the Great 7ar" dis,ussed with his friend +eli- 7elts,h" author of a boo entitled reedom and (race* $7ho was !elagiusD I hae read many things on !elagianism" but I do not remember a thing)$ Letter of Uaf*a to % eltsch! $ecem'er -.-7 )
/)
$;uamBuam insepara'ilem ha'ere possi'iltatem id est! ut ita dicam! inamissi'ilem)$ St) Augustine" $e natura et gratia! L8! <.%
0)
+riedri,h BRlderlin" Smtliche er*e! ed% riedrich Aeiner + Stuttgart: % Uohlhammer! -.<30! 6: 355%
2)
$8rrespira'ile per i pi% $ura e incolore come un Buaro% >era e trasparente +e tagliante0 come lossidiana% Lallegria chessa puH dare indici'ile% b laditoJJtroncata netta ogni speranaJJa tutte le li'ert" possi'ili% Compresa Buella +la serpe che si morde la coda0 di credere in $io! pur sapendoJJdefiniti,amenteJJche non c e non esiste)$ 5he obseration was made by E Milana" $8n,oca il non in,oca'ile"$ 9ione sociale < % 199()
6) &)
18l 'ene e il male sono due specchi D della stessa illusione: che Buella D di ,i,er padroni dellessere proprio%1
')
=ante Alighieri" The $i,ine Comedy! Purgatorio" trans) #harles S) Singleton % !rin,eton" ))* !rin,eton Uniersity !res" 19&/(" QQIC" 2.20" pp) .6861)
9)
A,,ording to the feli,itous formulation of #esare Garboli" in Gioanni !as,oli " Poesie famigliari! ed% Cesare (ar'oli + Milan: Mondadori! -.5<0%
1) !i::uto Paginette is now reprinted in Gianfran,o #ontini" arianti e altra linguistica % 5urin* Einaudi" 19&(" pp) 6.18.2)
