“Dolce era la notte.” Iraqi and Iranian Poets in Italy: Metrical-Stylistic Implications of Translingual Versification

Abstract

The essay that follows is a metrical-stylistic analysis of two anthologies of poetry published in Italy in 1998 and 2000 by poets who migrated from Iraq and Iran to Italy during the 1970s and 1980s, and began to publish poetry in Italian from the mid-1990s: Quaderno Mediorientale I: Iraq and Quaderno Mediorientale II: Iran. Although the two groups are heterogeneous, the authors are united by a common diasporic experience and translingual condition. Moreover, their Italian works are strongly characterized by their native literary traditions. The first section of this essay contextualizes some of the reasons behind the selection of these two corpora. It then describes key aspects of Iraqi and Iranian migration to Italy with reference to the European context. Finally, it provides a brief overview of the writers from the two countries who have produced creative works in Italian. The second section introduces the anthologies through an exploration of their themes and imagery, especially in relation to the representation of space. In the third section, prosodic and stylistic implications are considered with a view to delineating the intermingling of genres, forms, and images that emerge. The essay concludes by highlighting the challenge posed by translingual works for our understanding of the Italian literary canon as well as their aesthetic power and innovatory force in the Italian contemporary poetry scene.