The Sea, Venus, and Italian poetry

Dear Lovestar,

I wrote a poem half in Italian

Italian is a very poetic language and I am learning some Italian, simply for fun. Writing poetry in Italian is easier than in Latin for me because Latin, being a dead language is much more difficult thatn Italian, even though I have barely studied Italian.

I am learning Italian because I think it would help me in my Latin learning journey, and also because I thought it would be easy, then I find the beautiful Italian poetry and figure it was meant to be!

Some themes I noticed in Italian art and music. I speak soon, but Italian music (I have been listening and singing for my learning and I will talk of it again) talks a lot about the heart (il cuore), Spanish also. In fact in Spanish, we call a beloved person mi corazon (my heart).

Italian music also mentions this word a parola which means word. It is mentioned so much that I learned the word from music and looked it up, then learned the meaning. O have to learn more but it appears that it is used as one’s word, a word, the feelings in words, the meaning, things like that. By comparison, we do not use the word “word” in English as much in poetry.

Anf the third theme I noticed was the sea. It makes sense since Italy is surrounded by sea basically. It appears that Italians love the sea and they inmortalie it in their art. In a beautiful song I heard a man singing he was going to the sea and to find a mermaid (Sono una sirena = I am a mermaid)

It is not pure luck that all these things are related. It is all meant to be. Example, Venus, the Roman was ancient Italian, basically, see why she was born at sea? Well, of course, because she was born in Greece, an island as Aphrodite. Venus (the Roman Aphrodite) was seen as the mother of Rome (the now capital of Italy).

In my poetry, I did not inlcude parola because I need to understand the word more.

English translation:

My heart lives in the sea
Its vastness, like my love, 
Its calm, its color,
Its profundity, my soul. 

Italian poetry. Dante and his divine comedy

Did you know that the popular Italian poet Dante Alighieri was exiled? I need to know more about this man’s history.

Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy,” written in the early 14th century, is a seminal work in Italian literature and a cornerstone of Western cultural heritage. This epic poem, composed of three parts—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—traces the journey of the soul through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

Dante’s choice to write in vernacular Italian rather than Latin was revolutionary, elevating the Tuscan dialect to a prominent literary language and setting a precedent for modern Italian. His work not only advanced Italian literary tradition but also profoundly influenced subsequent writers and thinkers, solidifying his role as a pivotal figure in the evolution of Italian language and literature. I learned this from Podcast Italiano on Youtube.

Dante was exiled from Florence in 1302 due to political conflicts. He had been involved in the complex political and factional struggles of Florence, which led to his banishment. The “Divine Comedy” was written during his exile and is often seen as a reflection of his personal and political grievances, as well as his broader philosophical and theological concerns. The work itself did not cause his exile, but it did encapsulate his views on justice, politics, and morality, which were influenced by his experiences of exile.

But was he exiled because of his poetry? Was he using poetry to attack his political enemies?

The fault is of politics, obviously! Yet, poets will poet. And yes, I used poet as a verb.

Learning some Italian,

Eve