Joseph Tusiani (1924–2020) was “a man for all seasons,” of both an intellectual and international caliber: Latinist, translator, professor emeritus, polyglot, and Poet Laureate of New York State.1 Tusiani was born in 1924 in his beloved San Marco in Lamis (Gargano, Italy) and moved to the US in 1947, where he began his career as a university professor in various institutions of higher education in New York, including the College of Mount Saint Vincent, Fordham University, Hunter College, and Lehman College, from which he retired in 1983.Tusiani gained notoriety as a poet and translator of Italian classics when he was awarded the Greenwood Prize in 1956 for his poem “The Return”—the first “American” poet ever to win the prize—and was nicknamed “Michelangelo Man” by President John F. Kennedy for his translation of Michelangelo's Rime (Tusiani 1960). Sensitive and attentive to the social unrest of the 1960s and the growing importance of the civil rights movement, Tusiani wrote to Martin Luther King Jr., who replied to his request and later published the letter in the noted journal Nigrizia, which was founded in 1883.2Tusiani's poetic production is vast and extends across numerous languages: Italian, Latin, English, and, of course, his dialect, Gargano. Among his most noted translations, we remember Tasso's La Gerusalemme Liberate (Tusiani 1970), Dante's Le Liriche (Tusiani 1992b), Pulci's Il Morgante (Tusiani 1998), and Leopardi's Canti (Tusiani 1998). Beyond the lyric, Tusiani was also a prose writer (novelist and short stories) and author of three autobiographies. His novels include Dante in licenza (1952), Envoy from Heaven (1965), and, published posthumously, Quando la Daunia bruciava. Romanzo (2020). His three-volume autobiography includes La parola difficile (1988), La parola nuova (1991), and La parola antica (1992a), a multifaceted reflection that traces his life with passionate humility and self-irony. He received an array of awards throughout his career: the American Association of Teachers of Italian's first Distinguished Service Award (1986), the “Giglio d'argento” in Florence, Italy, (2007) for the promotion and diffusion of Italian culture internationally, and Governor Andrew Cuomo bestowed upon him the title of Poet Laureate Emeritus of New York State.I first encountered Tusiani's poetry at La scuola italiana at Middlebury College in the second year of my doctorate in modern languages. Anthony Julian Tamburri was invited to campus to teach a course on Italian American studies. Because La scuola italiana, like all of Middlebury's language schools, have a language pledge, Tamburri taught the course entirely in Italian and chose texts of Italian American authors in Italian. Thus, one of the texts he included was Tusiani's Il ritorno (1992c), the poet's first major return to Italian in book form in thirty-two years. The collection is a stirring homage to his homeland: Italy, Italian, Gargano. Additionally, it illustrates that “Tusiani's work is eminent proof of the psyche split that emigration brings at all levels, from the familial to the social, from the professional to the cultural” (Carravetta 2014, 1073–74). This collection, along with a variety of others, particularly The Fifth Season (1964), Gente Mia and Other Poems (1978), and even one of his later volumes, A Clarion Call (2016), demonstrate in a clear, metaphoric voice the internal struggle the poet maintained in attempting to be both fully Italian and American.In fact, in “Rediscovering Joseph Tusiani. From “The Return” to Il ritorno: A Psychoanalytic Approach” (Calabretta-Sajder 2016), I explore Tusiani's use of language, place, and memory in his most noted poem, “The Return,” as well as in Il ritorno. Through a psychoanalytic reading, I illustrate how Tusiani struggles with his dual identity, never able to become a US immigrant nor an Italian emigrant, completely; rather, the poet remains “beyond the margins.” Tusiani's lyric speaks to so many migrants; his experiences, as he notes himself, are universal, and his verse a portavoce. The morning after the electronic version of Italica was published, I received a lovely email from Joseph complimenting my article and sharing how accurate my analysis was. Additionally, he wrote me a poem that I still cherish today.Although I never had the pleasure of meeting Joseph nor of observing him “holding court” like in the early years of the American Italian Historical Association / Italian American Studies Association with the likes of Giose Rimanelli, it is clear from the homage to Joseph Tusiani in the Spring 2020 issue of the Journal of Italian Translation (Bonaffini 2020) that he was a mentor, friend, and collaborator with so many colleagues in Italian and Italian American studies. Indeed, his memory lives on through his own voice—lyric, narrative, translated, or scholarly—as well as through those he has inspired. In fact, Il miglior fabbro: Essays in Honor of Joseph Tusiani, edited by two of his protégés, Paolo Giordano and Anthony Julian Tamburri (2021) presents not only Tusiani's own words but also a commenoration from Giose Rimanelli and twelve critical essays on his opus. I conclude using Joseph's own words: Ah, too late, it's too late:What was gold is now crocus, and the sheenThat was morning is lifeTo be felt, no more seen. Into this seaOf loveliness the night is lost and gained,And all my cares are drowned. (“The Return”)Many thanks to Rosetta Giuliani Caponetto who helped me pen the American Association of Teachers of Italian (AATI) “In Memoriam” for Joseph Tusiani when he passed in April 2020. This piece is a translated, extension of the original. Anthony Julian Tamburri also offered some insightful suggestions.
Search from 250 M+ research papersSearch from 250 M+ research papers
Jan 28, 2024
Bahrum Subagiya + 2
Open Access