LUIGI PIRADELLO. Inteview: «SONO GRECO».
Salvatore Quasimodo. «The Greek feeling within him awakens when he
thinks of Greek poetry…»
LUIGI PIRANDELLO – salvatrore Quasimodo
Though the father of modernism in theater, Pirandello was deeply rooted in classical antiquity. Born in Agrigento (ancient Greek Akragas), he called himself a "Child of Magna Graecia" (Figlio della Magna Grecia) and identified as Greek—not as citizen of the modern greek state, but based on national self-identification and spiritual lineage. A spiritual Greek. He also declared himself Greek by descent/race (genos), being merely a subject of Italy.
1. Landscape: In his works, Sicily is a purely Greek place
where simplicity was the measure of beauty (Kάllos), not the heavy, vain Baroque.
2. Philosophy: Influence of Empedocles (from Akragas)
on the flux of existence. Influence of Protagoras: "Man is the
measure of all things." This is "Pirandellism"—the idea that truth
is relative (Sophistic view).
3. The "Mask" (Persona): His theory
of masks relates to the ancient Greek theater. Prόsopon means both "face" and "mask." His characters are
trapped in roles imposed by society, like actors in a tragedy bound by fate.
4. The Chorus: He uses secondary characters as a Greek Chorus
to comment on the action.
5. Dionysus: The sense of the absurd and the dissolution of
logic in his work has a "Dionysian" quality—an ecstasy leading to
truth through madness.
|
Element |
Ancient
Greek Root |
Pirandellian
Interpretation |
|
Identity |
The Mask (Prosopon) |
The social mask hiding the "void." |
|
Fate |
Heimarmene (Destiny) |
The prison of subjective truth. |
|
Philosophy |
Heraclitus
/ Empedocles |
Panta Rhei (Life is constant change). |
|
Space |
Akragas (Sicilia-Magna
Graecia) |
The stage of man's eternal tragedy. |
In 1934, Pirandello was awarded the Nobel Prize. He is the bridge of
today's Sicily to Greece, the resistance to the violent deconstruction of the
Greek spirit of the Sicilians.
"I AM GREEK":
"… I do carry
Hellas in my mind. Her spirit is consolation and lighthouse for my soul. I am
from Sicily, in other words from Magna Greece and there still exists a lot of
Hellas in Sicily. The measure, the harmony and the rhythm live on her. I am of the
same Hellenic origin. Yes, yes, don't be surprised. My family name is
Piragellos. Piradello is the phonetic alteration of it, Piragello-Piradello…” —
Luigi Pirandello, interviewed by
Costas Ouranis, Nea Estia, Dec 1934.
But what is the surprice? Α less well-known than Pirandello.
Sicily had a second Nobel laureate: Salvatore Quasimodo, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1959.
Let us see who Quasimodo was.
He was born in Modica, Sicilia. He knew Ancient Greek fluently and also spoke modern
Greek.
Experience and “sense
of Greekness” in Quasimodo
Critics and scholars who studied Quasimodo point out that he felt Greek culture deeply
as part of his poetic identity — not merely as an external object of study, but
as an “embodied” source of voice for himself.
He never declared that he was Greek, as Pirandello
did, but he felt personally and deeply connected to Greece (not Greece as a
state entity, that is, the modern Greek state, but its timeless spirit). In a
letter, he describe himself, how the “Greek feeling within him awakens when he thinks of Greek
poetry.” His entire body
of work reflects this, and for this Greek dimension of his work he received the
Nobel Prize in 1959.
For this reason, he wrote the famous collection of
poems titled Dalla Grecia, with themes
drawn from Greek places — places from present-day Greece but not from Greek
Sicily, his own particular homeland.
Translations from Ancient Greek
Quasimodo, as a profound connoisseur of ancient Greek
literature, translated many works into Italian:
1. Homer – mainly excerpts
from the Iliad and the Odyssey.
2. Sophocles
–
tragedies such as Oedipus Tyrannus and Antigone.
3. Euripides – certain
tragedies and excerpts, especially for school use and study.
4. Aeschylus – excerpts from
tragedies, mainly for theatrical and literary study.
His translations stand out for their poetic fidelity
and linguistic simplicity, reflecting his own poetic approach
Translations
of Lyric Poetry
1. Sappho
o
He translated fragments of her lyric poems into
Italian.
o
He worked mainly with the short, emotionally charged
odes, preserving Sappho’s musicality and emotional tone.
2.
Alcaeus and other lyric poets from Lesbos
o
Like Sappho, many of their works survived in small
fragments, which he translated or incorporated into school and literary
editions.
3. Reflective influence
o
Ancient Greek lyric form influenced his own poetry;
for example, in Ed è subito sera, the density, simplicity, and
emotional intensity recall Sappho.
Examples of Influence on His Own Poetry
·
Sappho influenced Quasimodo’s restrained and personal
style, especially in poems that explore love, memory, and nature.
·
Many of his short poems, marked by strong emotional
intensity, echo lyrical motifs of the Greek tradition.
His poetry was not merely translational. Ancient Greek
thought and form were incorporated into his own creations. He felt Greek when
he wrote; he was not simply carrying out a formal task.
1. Ed è subito sera – includes short,
dense poems with a tragic tone and simplicity reminiscent of Greek tragedy.
2. La terra
impareggiabile – shows a strong influence of Greek philosophy and the natural world in
his poetry.
3. Many of his poems
contain references to Greek mythology and classical tragedy, for example myths
from the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as motifs of fate and
human struggle.
1. Emotional Relationship with Ancient
Greece
In a letter written in 1937,
Quasimodo described his experience with Sappho in a deeply personal and
emotional way (in Italian):
“Stanotte sono stato
con Saffo. Io pensavo di dire a te quelle parole […] della poesia più alta
dell’antichità, e quello che di greco c’è nel mio sangue s’è svegliato…”
which roughly means: “Tonight I was with Sappho. I was thinking of telling you
those words […] from the highest poetry of antiquity, and what is Greek in my
blood awoke…”
This phrase reveals a very
intense personal bond with ancient Greek literature and the Greek spiritual
tradition, almost as if he felt it within himself.
2. Poetry Collection “Dalla Grecia”
In his very important
collection La terra impareggiabile (1958), there is a series of poems
titled “Dalla Grecia” (“From Greece”), including poems referring to Greek
places such as:
- Acropolis
(di notte sull’Acropoli)
- Mycenae
(Micene)
- Delphi
(Delfi)
- Marathon
(Maratona)
- The Minotaur and Knossos (Minotauro e Cnosso)
- Eleusina.
Pages
in Academia.edu, related to South Italy’s history , mythology and prehistory.
https://www.academia.edu/161291377/THE_MYCENAEAN_COLONIZATION_in_SICILY_and_SOUTH
https://www.academia.edu/145784826/Sikani_Sikuli_and_Elymi_Who_were_they
BLOGG: sicilia-calabria.blogspot.com
Il suo spirito è consolazione e faro per la mia anima. Provengo dalla Sicilia, vale a dire dalla Magna Græcia, e tutt’ora c’è tanto di Grecia in Sicilia.
Il metro, l’armonia, il ritmo vivono ancora...d’altronde anch’io sono di origine greca. Si, si, è proprio così, non stupitevi. Il mio cognome «Piranghelos».
«Pirandello» non è altro che una sua deformazione fonetica «Pirangelo,Pirandello»...
*****
(Luigi Pirandello. Interview to Costas Ouranis. Magazinο “Nea Estia”, No 191, December 1934. Institut Costas Ouranis, Plaka, Athina
***************
LUIGI PIRADELLO
The most Famous MagnoGreek of modern Sicily was the Luiggi Piradelo. “… I do care the Hellas in my mine. Her spirit is consolation and lighthouse for my soul. I am from Sicily, in other words from Greater Greece and there still exists a lot of Hellas in Sicily. The measure, the harmony and the rhythm lives on her. I am the same of Hellenic origin. Yes, yes, don't be surprised. My family name is Piragellos. The Piradello is the phonetic alteration of it, Piragello-Piradello…” Luigi Piradelo to Costas Ouranis. The whole interview in the magazine “Nea Estia”, No 191, December 1934. Costas Ouranis Foundation, Plaka, Athenes Greece (or National Library, Syngou 365 Kallithea, Athens)
