Book record
Painted Fire
Maria Spaziani
Translated from Italian by Lynne Lawner
Painted Fire, by Maria Spaziani and translated by Lynne Lawner, brings together two kinds of intensity: image and flame. Spaziani is a significant Italian poet whose work often moves through elegance, memory, culture, and lyric intelligence. The title suggests artifice without coldness, fire made visible through craft rather than merely burning. Lawner’s translation gives English-language readers access to that poised heat. I would read Painted Fire for its balance of cultivated form and emotional charge. The danger with elegant poetry is that readers sometimes mistake polish for distance. A title like this reminds us that style can be combustible. The poem may be beautifully made, but it is still dealing with heat, risk, color, and the old human problem of how to make feeling last.
- Published
- 2009
- Publisher
- Chelsea Editions
- Language
- Italian
- Country
- Italy
- ISBN
- 9780972527187