A Maltese translation of an essay Karmenu Mallia wrote in Esperanto about Dun Karm has been published to commemorate the 50th year from the death of the national poet.

The essay originally appeared in the book Klaro Kaj Elasto (ed. Iltis, France, 2003) together with another 20 essays by diverse authors, as a festschrift for the esperantist author Fernando de Diego on his 80th birthday.

The 22-page publication is being released by the Malta Esperanto Society under the title Dun Karm u Zamenhof – żewġ ilħna tewmin’.

In it Mallia compares two poems: ‘Penso Printempa’ (A thought for Spring), surprisingly the only poem Dun Karm wrote in Esperanto in 1901, that is two years before the inauguration of the Esperanto movement in Malta, and ‘Pluvo’ (Rain) by Zamenhof.

Dun Karm Psaila was a writer and poet. Before 1912 Dun Karm wrote only in Italian. His first known published poem is La dignità episcopale (1889) after which he published Foglie d'allora (1896) and Versi (1903) another collection of Italian poems.

The publication also marks the 50th anniversary from theEsperanto society’s foundation. It sells for €2 and can be ordered from maltesper@hotmail.com.