Riflessi
by Patrick SammutA collection of poems in ItalianEdited by Giuseppe Napolitano, Ida Di Ianni and Tobia Paolone
Published by Volturna Edizioni, 2021
Patrick Sammut is one of Malta’s busiest and most dedicated literary critics, having to his credit a significant number of highly interesting and worthy books concerning literature in general, both locally and beyond our shores.
He is also a poet of great merit, and has for years given his best and participated enthusiastically in various poetry groups, both in Malta and in various other countries, particularly in Italy.
He has also founded the much-loved and popular virtual magazine Il-Pont, which is a must for all aficionados of global literature, and which, in my opinion, is also hugely important and definitely a must as a booster for A-level students in a general sense.
Riflessi contains 33 poems spread under various titles, all highly intense, emotional, and deeply evocative of the bitter realities of life
Sammut has been teaching Italian to high-school students for 27 years, with the most satisfying of results. As I said, he is a prolific and worthy poet, and the poems he writes in Maltese have a charm of their own.
Now, he is exposing his brilliant command of both poetry and the Italian language in Riflessi, a collection of very beautiful poems he wrote in Italian and published in Italy by Volturnia Edizioni. It is a book that is a joy to own and an even greater joy to read.
Riflessi contains 33 poems spread under various titles, all highly intense, emotional, and deeply evocative of the bitter realities of life, with its short intervals of happiness that often seem clouded once again with bouts of cynicism and veiled with sadness. Written in Italian, these poems have a typical musicality of their own, which further helps to make them both readable and enjoyable.
These poems remind me of Chopin’s wonderful 24 preludes op. 28: so much in so little! Such a variation of hues on one canvas! So many moods! All of them distinctly varying in tone and rhythm! Particularly beautiful are: Vi voglio bene; Dodici anni dopo; Maledetta primavera; Cuore che batte; Viaggiare and Scuole deserte.
The distinguished Italian poet Giuseppe Napolitano introduces Riflessi with a deep reflection on both Sammut himself, as well as on his work and his poems, and the book closes serenely with a superb Postfazione by Ida Di Ianni.
This book is a must for all those who love poetry, regardless of what language it is written in, as long as they can get through and ultimately enjoy the Utopian and blissful atmosphere of Arcadia!