Song for Milan

A collection of published and unpublished poems and prose which show us the complex connection between the “poet of the Navigli” and the city where she spent her whole life. The often dark words recount the decadence and the transformation of Milan, the city of her childhood, now lost and unrecognisable: the city of the osterie next to the Navigli canals, of poets, of the wild, of those left behind. The volume is also packed with photographs which present the locations described and inhabited by Alda Merini: the banks of the Navigli and the side streets, and the osterie where she smoked countless cigarettes, drinking a glass of wine with her faithful typewriter. The great Italian poet was born on 21 March, the first day of spring; in 1999 the same day was proclaimed UNESCO World Poetry Day. We celebrate it with one of her poems: It is dead.
The city dearest to my heart
Seen through clouds dust and bars
It is dislocated like a dummy
Which has lost its head.
The Alemanni came
and the golden reins of poetry,
Caesar’s triumphs came,
history has got so confused
that we no longer know
who the real pirates of darkness are.
And yet in this outrageous heartbeat
there is no reason for Milan
which was the forgiveness of life
and the spring song.
(Alda Merini, È morta la città più cara al mio cuore - The city most dearest to me is dead)
 

Canto Milano
Alda Merini
Manni Editori, 2007