Slashing Sounds

Jolanda Insana (b. 1937, Messina, Italy; d. 2016, Rome) is the author of several volumes of poetry, beginning with Sciarra amara in 1977. In addition to writing poetry and teaching classics to high school students, Insana was also a prolific translator of Greek and Latin, including works by Sappho, Euripides, and Martial. Insana won the Viareggio Prize for poetry for La Stortura in 2002 and the Premio Pascoli Prize in 2009. Catherine Theis is the author of the poetry collection The Fraud of Good Sleep and the play MEDEA, an adaptation of the Euripides story. She teaches at the University of Southern California.

• Translator’s NoteNiente dissi / I Said NothingUn vecchio piacere / An Old PleasureUn’altra afasia / Another Loss of SpeechNessuna consolazione / No ConsolationStercoraria e nullatenente / Destitute and Living in DungDel poesificio / In the Poetry FactoryColtellate di bellezza / Stabs of LovelinessSono questi i fiori / These Are the FlowersNon è per vanto / It’s Not for BoastingÈ un vecchio chiodo / It’s an Old NailServizio d’attesa / Waiting ServiceE venga un nuovo scorticatore / And a New Cheapskate ComesCorda bagnata in acqualanfa / Noose Soaked in Orange Blossom WaterNotes on Latin PhrasesAcknowledgments

"In poems that often take the form of lists and intimacies, the author, a translator herself, is translated with purposeful style."