Giovanni Pascoli’s Poemi Conviviali (1905) opens with a striking image: in the poem “Solon,” the poetess Sappho sings two poems on her lyre, one on love, the other on death. Yet the poem of love reveals itself to be a song of self-annihilation, while the poem of death becomes a celebration of immortality. What is worthy in this world does not perish but lives on through poetry. It is no coincidence that Pascoli chose this poem to open his collection, as “Solon” is an ode to the power of literature. Beneath its surface, however, lies another theme: the ancient bond between poetry and music. In archaic Greece, poetry was not simply read but performed with musical accompaniment: it was, in essence, what we now call “lyrics.” Sappho, Alcaeus, and Pindar, among others, were called lyric poets because their verses were accompanied by the lyre. Throughout Poemi Conviviali, music surfaces again and again, sometimes eerie and disquieting, often located in the limbo between life and death, or dream and reality; sometimes as the Dionysian, ecstatic sound of drums and double flutes, but most often as melodies performed on a stringed instrument, the lyre, which is the ancestor of the modern harp.
When James Ackhurst and I published Convivial Poems, the second complete English translation of Poemi Conviviali, we soon began organizing public readings of our work. We wanted these poems to be experienced not only on the page but as oral performances, where rhythm and voice take center stage. This approach honored both the classical myths the poems retell and Pascoli’s own principle that “rhythm is everything,” that poetry was born “out of the sound of drums and cymbals” (Pascoli 246). Our translation, in fact, adopted marked rhythmic patterns (sometimes with rhyme) and aimed above all at creating poems that should be read out loud. Other translators, too, such as Geoffrey Brock and Taije Silverman/Marina della Putta Johnston have brought an innate musical quality to their English versions of some poemi conviviali. It was this pervasive musicality within the poems and in their translations that first inspired me to accompany the readings with harp. As an amateur harpist, I witnessed how a subtle soundscape can deepen the resonance of words and illuminate emotion.
In 2023, I decided to record the performances and make them available through a podcast, www.poemiconviviali.com. Podcasts are an ideal medium for literature, as they are easily enjoyed amid the pace of daily life. I was also inspired by my own experience of audiobooks, where a skilled voice can often bring the page to life. As I am based in London (UK), I had the advantage of being surrounded by students and collaborators working at prestigious drama and music institutions, who were thrilled to be part of this project. I sought a range of voices to animate characters such as Odysseus, Myrrhine the courtesan, and the young Achilles and Memnon. Joanna Strafford, David Carter, Ali Harmer, Victoria Punch, and George Sharpley give vibrant shape and a new identity to these figures. Some translators lent their voice and interpretation to their own work: James Ackhurst reads “The Owl,” narrating the death of Socrates, while Taije Silverman performs her powerful, as yet unpublished translation of “Alexandros.” “These are such beautiful stories,” David Carter remarked, “they enchanted and moved me as I read them.”
The podcast includes all available English translations of Poemi Conviviali. Egidio Lunardi and Robert Nugent’s 1979 translation (faithful to Pascoli’s syntactic intricacies and to his echoes of Greek literature) remains invaluable to scholars, and I used it extensively in the episode devoted to “The Last Voyage.” I interwove it with Brock’s version of Canto V, “The Fixed Oar” (Brock 115-117) and with Taije Silverman’s “The Sirens,” (Canto XXI), published on the website of Poetry Foundation. For “The Courtesan,” a haunting, almost Gothic tale of a dead courtesan and the ghosts of her aborted children, I chose the elegant, narrative translation by Deborah Brown, Susan Thomas, and Richard Jackson, published in 2010 in their collection of Pascoli’s poems The Last Voyage. “Solon,” the opening poem, is the most translated poem of all conviviali; our website hosts both our 2022 version and Taije Silverman’s modern, domesticating translation, which brings the language and emotional register of the poem vividly into the present.
For the musical accompaniment, I wanted original compositions that captured each poem’s essence. I had previously performed on the harp using simple pieces written by my husband, composer and pianist Giovanni Tardini. For the podcast, I invited professional harpists such as Arianna Mornico, who enriched the pieces with her own interpretive depth, and harpist composer Marianne Gubri, who contributed several of her compositions. I was also fortunate to collaborate with Mark Harmer, whose atmospheric soundscapes were inspired directly by the stories. “I immersed myself in the stories and then created music to reflect the characters and situations in each part of the story” he explains. “My other guiding principle was to keep the music very simple so it supported and complimented the voice, rather than conflicting with it.”
Pascoli’s Poemi Conviviali is a work of rare beauty and immense erudition, drawing on obscure variants of Greek myths and dense intertextual allusions to ancient literature. Many English translations seek to clarify its linguistic complexities. Yet I am convinced that these poems are best appreciated through exploring their underlying themes. For this reason, each podcast episode includes a conversation between myself and a scholar. While I invited distinguished Pascoli specialists such as Maurizio Perugi, Maria Truglio, and Giovanni Barberi Squarotti, I also aimed to broaden the discussion beyond Pascoli studies. Eminent classicists, including Ruth Scodel, Michael Trapp, and Francesca Schironi, offer fresh perspectives on the myths that continue to shape our cultural imagination. Dr. Alise Bulfin reads “Gog and Magog” as a profoundly Victorian, Gothic narrative, while James Ackhurst addresses two poems from his perspective as a classicist. I also welcomed translators such as Geoffrey Brock and Taije Silverman to speak about their creative processes and inspirations.
The podcast “An Ancient Language for a Modern Soul: Poemi Conviviali by Giovanni Pascoli” creates an immersive experience inspired by the belief that the human voice is the soul of poetry, and that poetry is something to be enjoyed sensorially as well as intellectually. The conversations with scholars seek to bridge the distance between our modern world and the vast corpus of ancient literature, allowing listeners to hear these myths as living stories rather than remote cultural artefacts. In doing so, the series offers a new way to approach Poemi Conviviali not asan exercise in erudition but as a vibrant engagement with the mythic imagination. Through its range of translations and critical perspectives, the podcast ultimately presents Poemi Conviviali as Pascoli envisioned it: a poetic project that transcends linguistic and cultural boundaries, and a true example of world literature.
Elena Borelli is Lecturer of Italian at the Language Centre of King’s College London, where she teaches courses in Italian and Intercultural Studies. Her research focuses on the literature and culture of the European fin de siècle. She has co-translated Giovanni Pascoli’s Poemi Conviviali and published it in 2022 for Italica Press. She is a regular contributor of Journal of Italian Translation, and she is currently working on an English translation of Giovanni Pascoli’s Canti di Castelvecchio with US poet Stephen Campiglio.
Works Cited
Borelli, Elena. “An Ancient Language for a Modern Soul. Poemi Conviviali by Giovanni Pascoli.” https://www.poemiconviviali.com/
Pascoli, Giovanni. Convivial Poems. Translated by Egidio Lunardi and Robert Nugent. Lake Erie College Press, 1979.
_______. Convivial Poems. Translated by Elena Borelli and James Ackhurst. Italica Press, 2022.
_______. Last Dream. Translated by Geoffrey Brock. World Poetry Books, 2019.
_______. “Regole di Metrica Neoclassica.”Cesare Garboli, editor. Giovanni Pascoli. Poesie e Prose Scelte, v.2, pp. 177-290.
_______. ”The Sirens.” Translated by Taije Silverman and Marina Della Putta Johnston. Poetry Foundation https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/157748/the-sirens-624afee2d0420