Air and Memory

Poetry. Translated from the Italian by Andrew Frisardi. After World War II dialect poetry became widespread in Italy, withthe Milanese poet Franco Loi being one of its most prominent and masterful practitioners. In the 1970s, a leading critic called Loi "the most powerful poetic personality of recent years," and since then Loi has been considered one of the most distinguished living Italian poets. The present volume, translated and edited by Andrew Frisardi, provides a selection of Loi's shorter lyrical poems, drawn from the full span of his career, as well as an extraordinary interview with Loi in which he discusses poetry, religion, politics, writing in dialect, and the shaping experience of living through wartime Milan.