Italian poet
Ignazio Buttitta |
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Born | (1899-09-19)19 September 1899 Bagheria, Italy |
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Died | 5 April 1997(1997-04-05) (aged 97) |
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Occupation | Poet |
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Ignazio Buttitta (19 September 1899 – 5 April 1997) was an Italian poet who wrote predominantly in Sicilian.
Biography
Born at Bagheria, Italy into a merchant's family, after having taken part in World War I Buttitta joined the Italian Socialist Party and around this time started to write poetry in Sicilian. His first volume of poetry published was Sintimintali (Sentimental), followed in 1928 by Marabedda. Soon after, Buttitta relocated to Milan, where he achieved some success in the commercial world while continuing to pursue his passion for literature. Due to his political leanings, he had to leave Milan during World War II; after which he joined the Resistance, was jailed by the fascists, and narrowly avoided the death penalty, before returning to Milan, where he spent time with Sicilian intellectuals such as Elio Vittorini, Salvatore Quasimodo and Renato Guttuso. In 1954 he published his new book of poetry, Lu pani si chiama pani (The bread is called bread), financed by the Italian Communist Party. In this volume he defined himself as Pueta e latru (Poet and thief), an allusion to the manner in which he would pass among the people like a thief, appropriating their feelings, leaving behind a sentimental thread. This was especially the case in relation to his nostalgia for his homeland, but there are also more socially-oriented themes, in particular, protests against the social situation of Italy and Sicily, such as A stragi di Purtedda (1947, about Salvatore Giuliano and the Portella della Ginestra massacre), and Lamentu per la morte di Turiddu Carnevale (1956, about Salvatore Carnevale - a Sicilian trade unionist from Sciara who was killed by the Mafia on 16 May 1955 - and his mother Francesca Serio).
In 1964 cantastorie and folk singer-songwriter Otello Profazio set to music several Buttitta's poems in the album Il treno del sole (also known as Profazio Canta Buttitta). In 1972 Buttitta won the Viareggio Prize, for the volume Io faccio il poeta (I am a poet). His works have been translated into French, Russian and Greek.
Buttitta, during his career as a poet, has never hidden his pride in being Sicilian, and his love for the language of the island. In one of his most famous poems, Lingua e dialettu (Language and dialect), he explicitly talks about language as a key issue for his people, and implores his fellows Sicilians to preserve their language:
Un populu
diventa poviru e servu
quannu ci arrubbanu a lingua
addutata di patri:
è persu pi sempri.
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A people
becomes poor and servile
when their language is stolen from them
inherited from their forefathers:
it is lost forever.
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A contemporary Berlin-based Sicilian folk singer, Etta Scollo, celebrates the work of Sicilian folk singer and Buttitta associate, Rosa Balistreri, including rendering a version of Buttitta's The Pirates of Palermo:
Arrivaru li navi
Tanti navi a Palermu
Li pirati sbarcaru
Cu li facci d’infernu
N’arrubbaru lu suli, lu suli
Arristamu a lu scuru,
chi scuru
Sicilia chianci!
Tuttu l’oru a l’aranci
Li pirati arrubbaru
Li campagni spugghiati
Cu la negghia lassaru
N’arrubbaru lu suli, lu suli
Arristamu a lu scuru,
chi scuru
Sicilia chianci!
Li culura dû mari
N’arrubbaru chi dannu
Su ‘mpazzuti li pisci
Chi lamentu ca fannu
N’arrubbaru lu suli, lu suli
Arristamu a lu scuru,
chi scuru
Sicilia chianci!
A li fìmmini nostri
Ci scipparu di l’occhi
La lustrura e lu focu
Ca addumava li specchi
N’arrubbaru lu suli, lu suli
Arristamu a lu scuru,
chi scuru
Sicilia chianci!
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The ships arrive
So many ships at Palermo
The pirates come ashore
With infernal faces
They steal from us the sun, the sun
We are left in darkness
what a darkness
Sicily weeps!
All the gold of the oranges
The pirates steal away
Their rapacious campaigns
In the fog they create
They steal from us the sun, the sun
We are left in darkness
what a darkness
Sicily weeps!
The colours of the sea
They steal those from us, an outrage!
The fish are so crazed
As to lament their existence
They steal from us the sun, the sun
We are left in darkness
what a darkness
Sicily weeps!
From our women's eyes
They tear out
The splendor and fire
Which lit up mirrors
They steal from us the sun, the sun
We are left in darkness
what a darkness
Sicily weeps!
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See also
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Special Jury Prize: Denise McSmith (1975) • Stefano D'Arrigo (1977) • Jurij Trifonov (1978) • Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (1979) • Pietro Consagra (1980) • Ignazio Buttitta, Angelo Maria e Ela Ripellino (1983) • Leonardo Sciascia (1985) • Wang Meng (1987) • Mikhail Gorbaciov (1988) • Peter Carey, José Donoso, Northrop Frye, Jorge Semprún, Wole Soyinka, Lu Tongliu (1990) • Fernanda Pivano (1992) • Associazione Scrittori Cinesi (1993) • Dong Baoucum, Fan Boaci, Wang Huanbao, Shi Peide, Chen Yuanbin (1995) • Xu Huainzhong, Xiao Xue, Yu Yougqnan, Qin Weinjung (1996) • Khushwant Singh (1997) • Javier Marías (1998) • Francesco Burdin (2001) • Luciano Erba (2002) • Isabella Quarantotti De Filippo (2003) • Marina Rullo (2006) • Andrea Ceccherini (2007) • Enrique Vila-Matas (2009) • Francesco Forgione (2010) |
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First poetic work: Giovanni Giuga (1978) • Gilberto Sacerdoti (1979) |
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First work: Valerio Magrelli (1980) • Ferruccio Benzoni, Stefano Simoncelli, Walter Valeri, Laura Mancinelli (1981) • Jolanda Insana (1982) • Daniele Del Giudice (1983) • Aldo Busi (1984) • Elisabetta Rasy, Dario Villa (1985) • Marco Lodoli, Angelo Mainardi (1986) • Marco Ceriani, Giovanni Giudice (1987) • Edoardo Albinati, Silvana La Spina (1988) • Andrea Canobbio, Romana Petri (1990) • Anna Cascella (1991) • Marco Caporali, Nelida Milani (1992) • Silvana Grasso, Giulio Mozzi (1993) • Ernesto Franco (1994) • Roberto Deidier (1995) • Giuseppe Quatriglio, Tiziano Scarpa (1996) • Fabrizio Rondolino (1997) • Alba Donati (1998) • Paolo Febbraro (1999) • Evelina Santangelo (2000) • Giuseppe Lupo (2001) • Giovanni Bergamini, Simona Corso (2003) • Adriano Lo Monaco (2004) • Piercarlo Rizzi (2005) • Francesco Fontana (2006) • Paolo Fallai (2007) • Luca Giachi (2008) • Carlo Carabba (2009) • Gabriele Pedullà (2010) |
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Italian Author: Alberto Moravia (1982) • Vittorio Sereni alla memoria (1983) • Italo Calvino (1984) • Mario Luzi (1985) • Paolo Volponi (1986) • Luigi Malerba (1987) • Oreste del Buono (1988) • Giovanni Macchia (1989) • Gianni Celati, Emilio Villa (1990) • Andrea Zanzotto (1991) • Ottiero Ottieri (1992) • Attilio Bertolucci (1993) • Luigi Meneghello (1994) • Fernando Bandini, Michele Perriera (1995) • Nico Orengo (1996) • Giuseppe Bonaviri, Giovanni Raboni (1997) • Carlo Ginzburg (1998) • Alessandro Parronchi (1999) • Elio Bartolini (2000) • Roberto Alajmo (2001) • Andrea Camilleri (2002) • Andrea Carraro, Antonio Franchini, Giorgio Pressburger (2003) • Maurizio Bettini, Giorgio Montefoschi, Nelo Risi (2004) • pr. Raffaele Nigro, sec. Maurizio Cucchi, ter. Giuseppe Conte (2005) • pr. Paolo Di Stefano, sec. Giulio Angioni (2006) • pr. Mario Fortunato, sec. Toni Maraini, ter. Andrea Di Consoli (2007) • pr. Andrea Bajani, sec. Antonio Scurati, ter. Flavio Soriga (2008) • pr. Mario Desiati, sec. Osvaldo Guerrieri, ter. Gregorio Scalise (2009) • pr. Lorenzo Pavolini, sec. Roberto Cazzola, ter. (2010) • pr. Eugenio Baroncelli, sec. Milo De Angelis, ter. Igiaba Scego (2011) • pr. Edoardo Albinati, sec. Paolo Di Paolo, ter. Davide Orecchio (2012) • pr. Andrea Canobbio, sec. Valerio Magrelli, ter. Walter Siti (2013) • pr. Irene Chias, sec. Giorgio Falco, ter. Francesco Pecoraro (2014) • pr. Nicola Lagioia, sec. Letizia Muratori, ter. Marco Missiroli (2015) • pr. Marcello Fois, sec. Emanuele Tonon, ter. Romana Petri (2016) • pr. Stefano Massini, sec. Alessandro Zaccuri, ter. Alessandra Sarchi (2017) |
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"Ignazio Buttitta" Award: Nino De Vita (2003) • Attilio Lolini (2005) • Roberto Rossi Precerotti (2006) • Silvia Bre (2007) |
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Special award of the President: Ibrahim al-Koni (2009) • Emmanuele Maria Emanuele (2010) • Antonio Calabrò (2011) |
Poetry prize: Antonio Riccardi (2010) |
Translation Award: Evgenij Solonovic (2010) |
Identity and dialectal literatures award: Gialuigi Beccaria e Marco Paolini (2010) |
Essays Prize: Marzio Barbagli (2010) |
Mondello for Multiculturality Award: Kim Thúy (2011) |
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"Targa Archimede", Premio all'Intelligenza d'Impresa: Enzo Sellerio (2011) |
Prize for Literary Criticism: Salvatore Silvano Nigro (2012) • Maurizio Bettini (2013) • Enrico Testa (2014) • Ermanno Cavazzoni (2015) • Serena Vitale (2016) • Antonio Prete (2017) |
Award for best motivation: Simona Gioè (2012) |
Special award for travel literature: Marina Valensise (2013) |
Special Award 40 Years of Mondello: Gipi (2014) |
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