I’m excited to share this episode of Trafika Europe Radio, in which host Clayton McKee generously offered me ample room to expound on the poetry of Mario dell’Arco and my experience putting together Day Lasts Forever. It’s mostly about translation, but there are a number of digressions in which I divulge something of the life and work of this master of the miniature, as well as the marvellous city of Rome which informed so much of his work.

The Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia, a friend and early admirer of Dell’Arco’s work – and whose early work Dell’Arco promoted with his (at the time) much larger megaphone – called him the “quarto grande” – or ‘fourth great’ – of Romanesco poetry, after the more famous Belli, Pascarella and Trilussa. Towards the end of the interview we talk about the ‘fifth great’ (not Sciascia’s words but mine), Mauro Marè. Buon ascolto!