eugenio montale

The third (and sadly least known) Mount Etna of Italian poetry along with Dante and Leopardi is today's great Italian, Eugenio Montale. Anyone with any interest whatsoever in l'italianistica (or even just "the human condition") must read Jonathan Galassi's bilingual translation of the collected poems.

Here is my personal favourite to get you started. And here's another one.

For some background on the poet try the usual wikipedia entry or, for something in Italian, this site (even though it annoyingly disables your browser's back button). Click on "audio" for some clips of the poet reading. Amazing stuff!

Another great book by Montale in translation is The Second Life of Art, which you can find in the libreria section to your left.