La Mezzanotte di Spoleto-Midnight in Spoleto by Paolo Valesio and translated by Todd Portnowitz

This is poetry from Italy.

La Mezzanotte di Spoleto-Midnight in Spoleto by Paolo Valesio translated by Todd Portnowitz is published by Fomite. This is a Book originally written in Italian. This was published in 2018.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781942515821E12.

La Mezzanotte di Spoleto-Midnight in Spoleto, by Paolo Valesio and translated by Todd Portnowitz, is already bilingual in its title, poised between Italian place and English night. Spoleto carries cultural and artistic resonance, while midnight suggests threshold, secrecy, vigil, or the hour when ordinary proportion begins to loosen. Valesio’s Italian poetry often has philosophical, religious, and dramatic dimensions, and Portnowitz’s translation brings that atmosphere into English. I would read this book for its nocturnal intelligence, its sense that a place can become a site of spiritual or artistic listening. The hyphenated title matters: this is not simply translation after the fact, but a book aware of crossing. Midnight becomes the hour where languages meet, and where thought has fewer defenses.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.