Трилусса: Поэт римского диалекта и сатирик своего времени

Italian poet

Carlo Alberto Camillo Mariano Salustri (26 October 1871 – 21 December 1950), known by the pseudonym Trilussa (an anagram of his last name), was an Italian poet, writer and journalist, particularly known for his works in Romanesco dialect.

In witty language, barely rippled by his bourgeois dialect, Trilussa commented on around fifty years of Roman and Italian news, from the Giolittian era to the years of fascism and the post war years. The corruption of politicians, the fanaticism of hierarchs and the scheming of the powerful are some of his favourite targets. In some of his poems, such as Er venditore de pianeti, Trilussa also manifested a certain patriotism of the Risorgimento type. However, satire, conducted with a certain political apathy and scepticism, is not the only motif that inspires Trilussian poetry: there are frequent moments of crepuscular melancholy, disconsolate reflection, here and there corrected by flashes of irony, on withering loves, on the loneliness that makes old age bitter and empty (the models in this case are Lorenzo Stecchetti and Guido Gozzano). The key to accessing and reading Trilussa's satire can be found in fables. Like other fable writers, he also had something to teach, however, his moral was never generic or vague, but linked to the real time comments on the issues of life. He was not satisfied with his happy endings; therefore, he pursued his own amusement already during text composition and, of course, that of the reader to whom the product was addressed.

Trilussa was the third great dialect Roman poet to appear on the scene from the nineteenth century onwards: while Belli, with his expressive realism, drew fully from the language of the lowest strata and turned it into short, memorable sonnets, Pascarella proposed the language of the United Italy commoner, who typically aspires to culture and middle class, integrated into a narrative of a wider scope. Trilussa devised a language even closer to Italian, in an attempt to enhance Belli's vernacular. Trilussa replaced popular Rome with bourgeois Rome, and historical satire with the humour of the daily chronicle. In particular, Trilussa has the ability to highlight people's pettiness and weaknesses through incisive and biting metaphors, often based on episodes involving domestic animals. This is the case of the well known sonnet Er cane moralista (The Judgemental Dog) in which the initial censorious and critical attitude towards reprehensible behaviour is followed by a finale in which accommodation and mutual interest recall common dynamics of human behaviour.

Between 1887 and 1950, Trilussa initially published his poems in newspapers and later collected them in volumes. This allowed him to immediately gather the readers' opinions, as well as to show them the artistic rendering of his compositions at a first draft. It was only afterwards that he selected and refined his poems, discarding those that were less up to date and making stylistic, metrical, and linguistic interventions. This second phase made his collections not a simple re proposition of poems scattered on the pages of newspapers, but real books of poems, perfected and, when necessary, renewed in relation to the social context. Stelle de Roma. Versi romaneschi, 1889. Er Mago de Bborgo. Lunario pe' 'r 1890, 1890. Er Mago de Bborgo. Lunario pe' 'r 1891, 1891. Quaranta sonetti romaneschi, 1894. Altri sonetti. Preceduti da una lettera di Isacco di David Spizzichino, strozzino, 1898. Favole romanesche, Roma, Enrico Voghera, 1901. Caffè concerto, Roma, Enrico Voghera, 1901. Er serrajo, Roma, Enrico Voghera, 1903. Sonetti romaneschi, Roma, Enrico Voghera, 1909. Nove poesie, Roma, Enrico Voghera, 1910 (online). Roma nel 1911: l'Esposizione vista a volo di cornacchia: sestine umoristiche, Roma,1911. Le storie, Roma, Enrico Voghera, 1913. Ommini e bestie, Roma, Enrico Voghera, 1914. La vispa Teresa, Roma, Carra, 1917. A tozzi e bocconi: Poesie giovanili e disperse, Roma, Carra, 1918. Le finzioni della vita. Rocca San Casciano, Licinio Cappelli, 1918. Lupi e agnelli, Roma, Enrico Voghera, 1919. Le cose, Roma Milano, A. Mondadori, 1922. I sonetti, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1922. La Gente, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1927. Picchiabbò, ossia La moje der ciambellano: spupazzata dall'autore stesso, Roma, Edizioni d'arte Fauno, 1927. Libro n. 9, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1930. Evviva Trastevere: poesie, bozzetti, storia della festa de nojantri, varietà, Trilussa e altri, Roma, Autocultura, 1930. La porchetta bianca, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1930. Giove e le bestie, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1932. Cento favole, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1934. Libro muto, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1935. Le favole, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1935. Duecento sonetti, A. Milano, Mondadori, 1936. Sei favole di Trilussa: commentate da Guglielmo Guasta Veglia (Guasta), Bari, Laterza e Polo, 1937. Mamma primavera: favole di Trilussa: con commento di Guglielmo Guasta Veglia: disegni di Giobbe, Bari, Laterza e Polo, 1937. Lo specchio e altre poesie, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1938. La sincerità e altre fiabe nove e antiche, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1939. Acqua e vino, Roma, A. Mondadori, 1945. Le prose del Rugantino e del Don Chisciotte e altre prose, Anne Christine Faitrop Porta, Roma, Salerno, 1992.

Many of Trilussa's compositions have been used on several occasions by other artists as lyrics for their own songs, sometimes reinterpreting them. Some examples:

Ninna nanna della guerra, revisited by Maria Monti, on popular music. Ninna nanna della guerra, for many years Claudio Baglioni's masterpiece under the title Ninna nanna nanna ninna, especially in live albums (see his discography). A reference to the satire on "chickens" can be found in the song Penelope by Jovanotti, in the line "Se io mangio due polli e tu nessuno, statisticamente noi ne abbiamo mangiato uno per uno" (If I eat two chickens and you none, statistically we have eaten one for one). Examples of the use of his verses can also be found in cólta music. Alfredo Casella, for instance, set some fables in Romanesco dialect to music (Er coccodrillo, La carità, Er gatto e er cane, L'elezzione der presidente). The poem La fede (Faith) was taken up and reused by Pope John Paul I to develop one of the letters contained in the book Illustrissimi. Luciani, as in the poem, asks himself about faith: about what it is and why some people feel it ardently, while others do not have it at all. Luciani then adds some references to Manzoni. Pope John Paul I (Albino Luciani) recited one of his poems, La Fede, at a Wednesday audience during his brief pontificate in 1978.

Alipio Calzelli, Il balbuziente: versi di Trilussa, Napoli, Bideri. Angelo Vagnetti, Un cameriere filosofo: versi di Trilussa: musica di A. Vagnetti, Napoli, Bideri, 1903. Virgilio Brancali, La ninna nanna della guerra: canto e piano: versi di Trilussa, Roma, Casa Musicale Italiana, 1917. Costantino Lombardo, Voci lontane: Poemetto per voci e orchestra: versi di Trilussa, Roma, Tip. Danesi, 1917. Alfredo Casella, Quattro favole romanesche di Trilussa musicate per canto e pianoforte, Milano, G. Ricordi, 1924. Cesare Franco, Bolla de sapone: lirica per soprano o tenore con accompagnamento di pianoforte od orchestra: op. 46: versi di Trilussa, Bari, Raffaello Leo, 1930. Agostino Zanchetta, Er chirichetto: per canto e pianoforte: parole di Trilussa, Bologna, U. Pizzi Edit. Tip., 1931. E. Sc. Skeletti, La felicità: per canto e pianoforte: versi di Trilussa, Milano, G. Ricordi, 1937. E. Sc. Skeletti, La quercia: per canto e pianoforte: versi di Trilussa, Milano, G. Ricordi, 1937. E. Sc. Skeletti, La bocca: per canto e pianoforte: versi di Trilussa, Milano, G. Ricordi, 1938. Mario Pilati, La tartaruga: per canto e pianoforte: poesia di Trilussa (da Le favole), Milano, G. Ricordi, 1940. Giuseppe Micheli, Trilussa aroma de Roma: testi di Trilussa: musiche originali di G. Micheli, Milano, Usignolo, 1976. Celestino Eccher, Sette canzoncine per bambini: su testi di Trilussa, Trento, Federazione cori del Trentino, 2000.

Rai 1 broadcast in the evenings of 11 and 12 March 2013 the miniseries in two episodes, starring Michele Placido, Trilussa Storia d'amore e di poesia.