“L’Allegria” e l’haiku: due modelli letterari in “Airs” di Philippe Jaccottet

Abstract

Within the wider literary production of Philippe Jaccottet, generally composed in prose or long verses, Airs’unique stylistic brevity brings us to evaluate how his readings and his literary translations have influenced the poet’s own verses. During the composition of Airs, the Franco-Swiss poet shows interest in modesty and lightness of the haiku model and he reflects, at the same time, on conciseness and condensation of Ungaretti’s first work, L’Allegria. If compared with the ancient form of Japanese poetry and with the deconstruction of canonical rhythm achieved by Ungaretti, the suggestion of the two literary lessons is recognizable in a metric analysis of Airs’ poems. A focus on subject posture in poetic discourse, as well as a thematic analysis of the three different poetics, reveals similar imagery and ethical position: inclined to the progressive absence of subjectivity in haiku and Jaccottet’s poems, tending to a collective voice in Ungaretti’s intention. While the influence of haiku on Airs is already established from critical studies on the author, the specific weight of Ungaretti’s Allegria on Jaccottet’s verses still seems unexplored. Considering the influence of haiku, of which L’Allegria is also permeated, our study shall aim at verifying how the early production of Ungaretti affects Jaccottet’s stylistic choices, thematic imagery, and ethical purpose.