Songbook by Umberto Saba and translated by George Hochfield, Leonard Nathan

This is poetry from Italy.

Songbook by Umberto Saba translated by George Hochfield, Leonard Nathan is published by Yale University Press. This is a Book originally written in Italian. This was published in 2008.0 and has the ISBN of 9.780300136036E12.

Songbook, by Umberto Saba and translated by George Hochfield and Leonard Nathan, brings one of the central Italian poets of the twentieth century into English through the very form his work made iconic. Saba’s Canzoniere is a life’s book: intimate, autobiographical, musical, and psychologically direct in ways that still feel startling. The title Songbook matters because these are not merely individual poems but a long lyric record of self, city, love, family, and wound. Hochfield and Nathan’s translation gives English readers a major point of entry into Saba’s humane intelligence. I would read Songbook for its plainness and depth. Saba can feel approachable without being simple, which is one of poetry’s rarest gifts: a clear voice carrying a complicated life.

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.