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Okay, now we're going to go back to an Italian poet who is another representative of the Hermitism movement, Salvatore Quasimodo, who is younger, more recent than Giuseppe Ugaretti, but is very well influenced.

by his poetry. And it's one of the treasures of the Italian culture because he even won a Nobel in 1959.

because he was able to present the struggle of life through the fire of classicism and elegance. At least, this is one of the motivations that the judges presented when they rendered the verdict. And I do like this poem very much, so I'll try to read it. And I want you to be very careful and see if you feel and see the rhythm within the poem itself. Are you reading it in Italian? In Italian, of course.

You can read it in English! I'm only fit for English! Do you wanna switch? You sure? Please let me read it in Italian! So I would like to try and read it in Italian and then I'd be very happy if you read it in English. I want to see if you can feel the rhythm. Because unlike Ungaretti, Quasimodo is very careful in creating an internal rhythm. Again, he's using very simple vocabulary, so the focus is not on grandiose words.

as poems tend to do before the Hermeticism. Oh, by the way, do you know why they call it, why Francesco Flora called it Hermetism? Because it's like the words they spoke are like a hermit who's living an ascetic life in the desert and they don't speak much because the devil comes within. Ah, that could be. No? Do you remember Hermetisk Trismegistus?

You mean the magician? Yes. Also, it has something to do with that tradition. Well, it was more like the text that they present, these poems, is so open to interpretation and purposefully... purposefully... I'll never be able to say it. It intentionally made it difficult to understand that at least the critic that decided to create the coin, this term, felt it was connected to how difficult

difficult to interpret and understand are the writings attributed to Hermetus Trismegistus. Oh, but that person didn't necessarily exist in history, right? It's just that the whole tradition and the works attributed to... Yes, did Jesus exist?

It's an interesting question where we discuss a lot about texts and words that are attributed to him. So it's a literary tradition, it doesn't really matter here, but that's to explain the name. So try to hear if you sign, sorry, try to see if you hear. Finita è la notte e la luna, si scioglie lenta nel sereno, tramonta nei canali.

It's so lively September in this plain land. The meadows are green like in the southern valleys in spring. I left my companions, I hid my heart inside the old walls to stay only to remember you. As you are further away from the moon now that the day rises and on the stones the foot of the horses beats.

Is there a particular... It's not a pentameter, but it's free verse? It's free verse. Because you have to consider that this is one of the different literary movements. Another one that was active roughly at the same time was that of futurism. Wow.

This is absolutely not connected to Futurism and neither Ungaretti nor Quasimodo have much of a connection with Futurism, although Ungaretti did know the person that created and initiated a movement still there. So, you know, when you are in a cultural milieu, it's very, very obvious that things are connected with each other.

But it was already... it's like a way to break free from the constraints of usual and traditional poetry. Something that started with Leopardi from before. And these poets actually do consider Leopardi to be one of the highest moments of literary tradition. And he actually is. But yeah, as you can see, there is no rhyming.

But there is an internal reason, you feel that when you read it. And the beauty of it is that it's guiding you. It's guiding you to highlight the parts that are more important and where the poet wants you to stop. The first two lines, I love them particularly because they feel very Latin to me, very Orestes to me, because of the sounds.

Finita è la notte e la luna. Si scioglie, lenta, nel sereno. The rhythm is forcing you to slow down.

giving you a representation of that "lenta", slow. And this way is painting the image of this beautiful moon that is slowly dissolving itself in a cloudless, serene sky. And the point is the pace that this phenomenon occurs, which is slow. And the beauty of it again is when you have around yourself life that is happening so fast a pace, especially in Shanghai,

But at night, things go slower. They slow down. Don't you always like writing at night for that reason? I'm a nocturnal person for millions of reasons. But the night is slower, you can't even feel the flowing of the time anymore.

Yes, and I think I feel there is some kaisura in it. Ah, yes! Wow! Now you're talking to me, finally! Can you explain what a kaisura is, please? Kaisura in Latin just means a cut or a stop in the middle of the line, right? It's a cut, really. It's a cut. It's where a caesarean birth, C-section came from. Yes, correct. Where do you feel it is here? Try reading it yourself.

Italian version? Now some of the lyrics are really a lot of shit. Do you feel that there is a distance between "sereno", the first two lines, and the third? The what? The distance? Well, there is kind of a cut or a change of rhythm. I can be sure of it because one of the things that I wanted to do was to turn this into a song.

and I can sing very easily the first two lines, but when I get to the third, I do feel that there is a change. Although it's a free verse, I feel there is an internal, invisible rhyme in it, like "luna, lenta, tramonta", and this sound, the "a", it just proceeds earlier and earlier through the three lines. You can see there is a more subtle rhyming pattern that appears

that appeals to the inner ear rather than the outer ear, where we all know that it rhymes at the end. And I like the way it works in English, because sometimes the explicit rhyming can be such a violent poetry, have to rhyme with something, but a melodious poem doesn't have to rhyme at the end. Sometimes there is a clever, even more, you can't even notice, but there is the musicality.

Welcome to the rhetorical device of alliteration, which is one of the reasons why the Nobel Prize judges decided to highlight the classical roots of this poet. Because alliteration is one of the most important rhetorical devices we see in Latin poetry. Think of, I don't know, like, Lucretius' beginning, incipit, of the first of the Rerum Natura, Aenea Dunga Enetrix.

"Homenum divunque volupta, salma venus, prisubte la bentia signa." It's very, very liquid in a way, because there is an alliteration. And yes, you're very right. Through the repetition of the same sound, that's what alliteration means, there is like a creation of interconnected sounds. So "nita", "notte", and then you go down into the "u" of the "luna".

And the U in the vowel U in Italian poetry always gives you the idea of the depth, something that is profondo. So finita è la notte e la luna si scioglie lenta nel sereno. And then you have a bit of a strange break, tramonta nei canali. You do feel that this is shorter. And you know how I understand this? And this is just me, my interpretation. When you look at the moon, you look up.

You look at the sky. The sky has no boundaries, there's no limits. It's free. So your breathing becomes free as well. So "Finita è la notte e la luna, si scioglie lenta nel sereno" You are following the trajectory of the moon that is going down until it finally meets the earth. And then, of course, earth creates constraints because there are boundaries, there are buildings, your sight is no longer unimpeded. "Tramonta nei canali"

We shall read the English maybe for the audience, otherwise you know... I mean, line by line maybe. Fine, fine. Go. Oh, okay! So how do we... how do you wanna do it? No, just... because you've just analyzed the first three lines, so... So let's do that! Finita è la notte e la luna.

Exactly. Canali, canals, because this guy now is in Milan. This is one of the main points of his poetry. He is from Sicily.

originally from Sicily, and then he leaves his land, he's an immigrant. He's a very short distance immigrant because he moves from Sicily, from the southern parts of Italy, to Florence, to Milan, because he wants to pursue his career as a writer. Actually, you know, he was working as a technician. Technician? Yeah, he was a technician. I don't remember, I think an engineer, but certainly not what you would consider today someone that would write poetry.

And then he decides to leave his job and pursue this career, and that's why he's in the northern parts of Italy. But he misses Sicily so very much. And this element of homesickness, which I relate so much myself, since I've been out of Italy since 2011, in so many different parts of the world, I understand how he feels. And Canali, in Milan... Well, Milan is famous for its "navigli", the canali that you have in the city.

So it's looking up, you see something that probably is very familiar to him because that's the beauty of the moon. You see it everywhere you are and very possibly you're going to see exactly the same thing regardless of where you are. And then you're happy, your mind is transported back to your land until you follow the movement of the moon and your memory clashes with the realization that you're not at home.

Many Chinese classical poems can relate to that. Like 全山花月夜, we are icon translated on the scene because classical Chinese poem doesn't really translate well into Indo-European language. But the moon is always there. It's like, even like we are looking at the same moon back when Li Bai was looking at in the Tang Dynasty. Very true. Isn't there, like the festival of the moon is also the festival of people that are away from home. Hmm.

But the moon acts as a bridge, unifying everyone, connecting everyone, because everyone looks at the same thing. You know, I've been here for some years, so I do know about this. And every time that I've heard about it, I was so ecstatic and happy.

Because I felt the same feeling, the same understanding of the moon is something you see in this poem. And here you have an Italian poet, lived 100 years ago, that feels the same about something that is right there in front of everyone's eyes. The same that you feel, the same that this culture feels. Isn't that beautiful? That there is an element, anthropological element, that connects us beyond our ideology, beyond our culture, beyond what we believe, what we think. It's right there. We feel the same about this.

In Italian language, what nickname do you give the moon except for Luna?

Sincere? Maybe not the goddess. We know the epithet for goddess is Diana, but I'm not talking about personalization in there. What do you compare the moon to? I hope it's not a cheese block. Oh God, I don't even know where that came from. I actually wonder who had the first idea to say that. Me? I don't know. I was just thinking about that. I was thinking how would the Italian describe the moon? They are good with making cheese. Well,

Well, I do. I remember when I was a kid, I was reading stories of, you know, mice that thought that the moon was made of cheese, so they wanted to go to the moon. I don't think he's Italian, though. I think he's... I'm not going to say it. It's going to be either American or UK.

Because we call it, you know, the rabbit of jade, like the jade rabbit. Because there's a rabbit living there, right? Yeah. With a beautiful woman. Yeah, Chang'e, who was eaten the pill of immortality alone without her husband. So she now is punished by living alone there with the rabbits. And there are a lot of poems about how... But if I were Chang'e, I might be happy. Just being left alone without... I mean, just...

Like the previous poem that wants to be left alone and forgotten, you're sure? Looking down on earth. That's why I'm curious about it, because we also compare it to the cold frog. What? The frog has a nicer way of saying Chinese classical poetry, so it's not as bad as it sounds. So the mooma, compared to a lot of natural animals or natural objects, like a dish or...

or musical instruments? Remember that we are Catholic and this is an element that will never go away from our culture unfortunately or fortunately. You said first that the moon was personalized as Diane.

the goddess so what did we do when we moved into the catholic or christian culture oh mary exactly really but i thought because the moon is inconstant it changes all the time but mary is the symbol of steadfastness of constant of constant doesn't change it's just a projection of this of the of the shadow the moon remains the same but that's the thing the moon reflects the light of the sun so

So in the theological understanding of the world, God clearly is the Son, and she is the reflection of God's power onto earth. So I know you don't like that, I understand that, and I can see why, yes, but

But by looking at the moon, you catch a glimpse of the strength and power of the sun. As looking into Holy Mary, you do see a glimpse and a projection of God since Holy Mary is the vessel of the Lord. But yeah, that's probably because they needed to counter the existence of a pagan goddess connected to the moon. That's what they did most of the time. Artemis. So yeah, also the Virgin is called the "Stella Mare", right? The sea star.

Yes. Both the star and the moon and a lot of others. Santa Maria. There's a song that says, Santa Maria, estrela do dia, nostra nos visa per aneus e nos guia. This is a cantiga from Alfonso Sabio in the 11th century, which I love very much. Portuguese. Portuguese, yes.

And translated means blessed, Santa Maria, blessed Mary, star of the day, show us the path, mostranos via, per adeus to God and nos guia, and guide us to him. Because you have to consider that I'm not sure if you've ever lived away from the city, because I know you are Shanghainese, and you're very happy with Shanghai as a city. I'm happy, hello, hello.

I live in the jungle, not Shanghai. I can light fireworks. Okay, so to clarify, a jungle in their understanding is Baoshan because she's living in Baoshan.

But anyway, I used to live in a village with nothing around. And I can tell you that there is a huge difference between a night, a moonless night, and a night that is brightened up by the light of the moon. When I was a kid, I was very stupid. I was maybe 16 or 16, 18 years old. I wanted to get into the wood and get to a small chapel that we have at the top of the hill.

In order to do that, you have to go through the wood. So it's not safe at all because we do have wild animals. But I was feeling so confident because of the light of the moon. And yeah, well, that's a story for another time maybe. But there is a huge difference between with and without moon, which is why it's perceived to be the guidance that we receive from God. Okay, so, sorry.

And yeah, the moon can be another topic. I mean, there are so many beautiful motifs in the moon. Oh yeah, the moon. I love that. Yeah, so, um, continuing the poem: "E così vivo settembre in questa terra"

Oh, sorry, I was doing the move. September breathes in this land. Di pianura, i prati sono verdi. Of plains, the meadows shine green. Come nelle valli del sud a primavera. As in the southern valleys in spring. This is the comparison between, as I said before, his hometown, his land, Sicily, and Milan. Because that's what happens, at least it happens to me, when you are homesick, you see your past, your land, wherever you go.

There's always something that connects whatever you see to your memories. And then, so this is the setting of the poem, and then he decides to go and isolate himself. Let's try. "Ho lasciato i compagni" "I have left my friends" "Ho nascosto il cuore dentro le vecchie mura" "Hidden my heart within the old walls" "Per restare solo"

To be alone. To remember you. I don't know. I don't know how you feel about this. Because he clearly wants to remember. Like, this is what he wants to do. And he feels he needs to be lonely to do so. Do you relate to that? That's very true. Because that's why during those years of war, if you have received...

a letter finally from your beloved one from the battlefield you always hide hide from all company hiding a corner of the house in order to read it in privacy because otherwise you don't feel you can you know handle the and also sometimes even not in those extreme situation when you are opening a letter to discover whether someone has is well or even

alive and we still need the privacy we still want to be all immersed in that luxury of remembering someone in the fullest extent so we can agree that remembering someone is an intimate action of the soul is a motion of the soul that takes place within ourselves

We need to isolate ourselves, perhaps even extraniate ourselves from the world around ourselves. Because, yes, it is not something you can do in pairs. You know, we can worship God even together. But how can we deal with, even if it's the same person we are, that is where funeral comes into. We are remembering the same person.

Everyone has a different memory of the person so I don't think the two people can ever remember someone together. I was considering there was a kind of time that you haven't mentioned anything, you know, funeral or someone dead. I'm very gothic. Yeah, I was very gothic. Okay, maybe I ask you: how do you understand and interpret "Ho nascosto il cuore dentro le vecchie mura"? "I've hidden my heart within the old walls". How do you understand this?

Wow. Wow. I like it myself. Like, it's very nice. But I don't understand what he means by that. I don't understand what these ancient old walls are. He is...

it's just my guess yeah yes like things have changed now you have changed and i have changed and in our new condition because i'm what happened when i'm remembering you i'm thinking of the time we weren't shared in the past or some quality of you some gesture of you a smile of you that happened maybe years ago or i don't know some some time ago it's it

belongs to the past and the current me I have changed and I don't think I am qualified enough or the current me can properly remember you and I have to bury myself in the old war that is my past condition or you get the sense but you can't properly

change it for another world is it past memory is past me it's just something i have to be in that past in order to remember you to hold you from that past although i am remembering you from

the present moment. This is a good example of hermetism, exactly what I was trying to say before. The fact that when they say, when they write, as you said before, you understand what it is. There's a certain je ne sais quoi, there's some element of it that eludes your entire understanding. It's not like a mathematical formula. The ones that you understand, it remains and it's plain. I agree to a point. I think you're right. I feel now that I'm reading it, this vecchio mora, this old man sees himself.

Like he's leaving the company of his friends. So he's removing himself from the company of others because he wants to remember. And as we said, remembering is an inner action. And he closes himself within his own walls. And he's old at this point. I don't remember how old is he in 1942, but I think he's around 40 or 50 years old. And I can tell you by experience that unfortunately you feel some of the old age setting in. And perhaps he's

Hiding his heart within himself so that he can be entirely alone If we call our rib house, it is like a wall that holds someone with your heart So it's like my own bones, my own rib cage or something like that

Beautiful. Can you do something for me? Can you read the following line in Italian and tell me how you feel about it? And where do you feel, you know, your inner melody is forcing you to stop? Your thoughts about it. I hope I don't butcher the language because my Italian has come to a stop since I lost my insegnante. But I'll try. All provato.

I left my friends I left my friends I put my heart inside the old walls to be alone to remember

Okay, so listen to how I read it and let me know what you feel about it. I think you are breathing for the poem using the invisible kaijura.

And that's very... it's always somewhere in the middle and... Okay, how about this? "Ho lasciato il cuore dentro le vecchie mura per restare solo a ricordarti." Do you feel it's already different in terms of the meaning conveyed?

Is the coma originally here? No, it's mine. I'm very proud of my own translation. This is my translation. And as you said, I also felt that it was a caesura. And I wanted to render that in the English language. So I have left my friends. And you do feel that the period there is complete. Hidden my heart within the old walls. And that mimics the same reason. To be alone, caesura. To remember you. I felt that.

But maybe we've been too, I've been too nitpicking. Maybe we should, you know? Now, close reading is very important. Thank you. If we have a very small class in front of us, this will be on fire. Oh, the time I had a small class in front of me. How much I missed that. But I hope, like, what close reading, Dr. Kambod,

Bianco has been doing here can be conveyed through the air to reach your ears and in a metaphorical mood. Hear hear! Shall I continue? Yeah. Okay. So far he's been... he wants to remember and he does remember and he's alone and again the moon is still there and then I don't know I feel the breathing of the reason changes immediately and it gets much faster. Come sei più lontana della luna.

Now, lontan in Italian means that he's talking to a female figure.

But we have no idea who he is or she is. And it's not like in Shakespeare where, as you did, you try to conjecture, to think who the person was really talking to, either his lover, his male lover, or the other woman. We've been speculating maybe it's a love interest that he had before and that he had to abandon because he moved away from there. Or maybe, and this is my feeling because this is how I feel,

Maybe it's the land itself. Yeah, because the land or the motherland is also feminine in Italian. La terra, exactly. So it not necessarily needs to be a person. It can be a personification of his land, possibly. Because again, and this is my point here, the moon looks the same wherever you are. And so it's enough for you to be transported into the memories of your former place.

"Come sei più lontana della luna, ora che sale il giorno, e sulle pietre batte il piede dei cavalli" Would you like to translate that? In Italian? Oh, so we do the... English? Yeah. "Come sei più lontana della luna,

How much further you are than the moon. Ora che sale il giorno. Now that the day rises. E sulle pietre batte il piede dei cavalli. And hoofs of horses echo over the stones. Thank you. So here is, the moon is setting down. And the day begins. Sun rises. And that moment, yeah, that moment of remembrance is gone. It's so fragile.

And the diurnal activity, the hustle-bustle of the day begins symbolized by the hoofs of the horses. The silence and the spell is broken. Yes, because up until now we didn't have any notation of sound in the entirety of the poem from the beginning to this very moment.

So I feel it's like when you are so focused on something and everything around you disappears and you're no longer... Plato would say in the Phaedo, when you're able to concentrate your soul into one single kernel, because in his understanding when he writes the Phaedo, the soul is like diffused in the whole body because that's how you feel things. But when you do philosophy, then you're able to gather your soul from all the extremities of your body, crop it, like put it into one single spot.

So you can't hear anything because your soul is not in your ear anymore. And this is what he's doing when he sees the moon. It's beautiful, right? Until, yeah, as you said, the day-to-day labor, the lower level labor comes in, barges into his meditations, in his reflections with the sound, and the sound breaks the spell. I love that, that you said, breaks the spell. Yeah.

How often many of us want the night to never end. Not just Romeo and Juliet. You do right, me to sleep. Yeah, but the intention is the same, right? You want to sleep more, I want to ride more. Romeo and Juliet want to sleep with each other more. So they all hate them. For them it's like the lock.

So that marks the song of the blood. It's like the hooves of horse here. Now it marks, you know, breaking off. But if I may say, and this is just me being shit in the bed in a way. Have you ever been awake, say, at, have you ever seen the transition between, of the world around you? Between, say, from four o'clock in the morning to seven o'clock in the morning?

I think so because those hours I was usually awake. Too bright. Sometimes I go to the balcony and watch. This is when the daylight is most beautiful because sometimes for a moment you can see both the sun and the moon in the same sky, in different directions. Yes, very much so. The horizon is a rich color band of somewhere between purple and blue and a little tiny band of orange or scarlet.

That's it. And it changes every minute. If you gaze at it for several minutes, you can't tell at which second the color changes. But after two or three minutes, the proportion of the different colors have already changed suddenly.

Suddenly the warm color takes dominance. Suddenly the purple has faded. There's only a faint line of purple. That is a visual notation. I myself, when I was much younger, 16 maybe years old, I used to work in the fields because I wanted to get money to pay for my driving license. To plant potatoes? No, no, no. I was gathering pears.

And I remember we started... Peers? Peers. I can't see you gathering peers. Oh, it's very easy. Monkey job. Why? Why does he have to go back to monkeys with you? I don't understand. Sorry. Are you making fun of me because I was doing some honest manual labor before taking a PhD? I'm very proud of it. Have you done any manual labor? Of course I have done. Like such what?

It takes so much time for you to think about it that I don't think you really have. I must have. I just didn't remember it that well. So anyway, my partner, because we were working together with another friend of mine that was putting down the car and I was paying for the gas, would come and pick me up from my home at 4. And we get to where we need to start working around at 4.30, because we would work from 4.30 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon, in the evening, with a couple of breaks.

And I do remember very well, I saw exactly what you mentioned, like the existence of the moon right there in the summer in Italy. We do see that with the sun coming up. But the thing is, it's so quiet because all the animals that live in the night have gone to sleep. And yet the animals, the people that live during the day have yet to wake up. So you have this weird moment in between where the world is entirely and completely still.

There's nothing. No one is in there except me and my friend who have to go work. You feel like God? Like I created all this and I enjoy all this. No, I'm sorry. No. No, because I have to work for at least nine, ten hours and it's going to be a very hard work. I

I remember I was so thin at that time because it's a lot of work, but I do understand this point because of that I understand the stillness and then we get to the field and the guy turns on the tractor the engine starts and the Magic the spell as you said I think you you use the right word there is entirely broken and whatever musing you had about life about memories anything is taken away by the fact that now you have to start working and

Yeah, it's very sad. And also this sentence is the saddest, how much further you are than the moon. Because sometimes the moon can be treacherously feel close. When I was living in Dublin, sometimes I feel the moon is just on top of the opposite building. I feel that if I run, if I build a ladder or just use a ladder from my storage room and I just place it,

you know, on my balcony and I can climb that ladder and if I walk long enough I can walk directly into the heart of the moon because it's right there. It's right there and I can reach for it. I can use my entire hand to cover the moon from where I stand so it's very large. But we all know that the moon is so far away almost although it's just it's the closest celestial body to the earth but it's a distance beyond we mortals capacity

And to be further than the moon is heartbreaking. It's an interesting part here. You can consider this to be an hyperbole, like a reciprocal device of hyperbole, but perhaps it's really how he feels. So maybe it's not an hyperbole at all. It's just the realization of something that is right there in front of him. And again, as someone that emigrated somewhere else, I understand this very much. I really do understand this very much.

So how did you like this poem? Did you like it? This is a very exquisite example of... I still can't pronounce it. Hermeticism. Which one did you like more between the two so far? I have to say this one. Because that one is...

I can identify more with that one, but I would want to live in the world of this poem. I understand. I mean, in terms of technique, I would say the second is much more refined, specifically because of the internal rhythm that you've mentioned and realized. The first, again...

I don't think it's poetry anymore, just poetry anymore. It's really the experience of a person that went through a traumatic experience and in a way is writing, perhaps also to get that experience out of himself. So I feel the second, Quasimodo, is a poem that writes for an audience, but Natale by Ungaretti, Ungaretti is a poem that writes for himself.

Like, as you said, there is no distance between the author and the narrative voice in the first. So in the reflection, meditation part. Why is there a quotation mark? Why is the title broken into all the case studies? No idea. That's a Malay citation style because this is part of a... Ah, okay. So this is the book title. Yes. This is very telling. I'm going to get a teddy bear.

that I haven't written papers recently spending my tropical time in Bali playing with monkeys. Oh man, I envy you. Once an academic ever. An academic is like a curse. You can never escape from it.

Oh