My translation of Mario dell’Arco’s selected poems, Day Lasts Forever, will be published in 2024 by World Poetry Books. I have worked on this book for nearly twenty years, since discovering dell’Arco in a long-gone secondhand bookshop in Rome. This will be the first book-length translation into English of one of the leading Romanesco poets of the twentieth century. (Romanesco is the dialect of modern Rome, a rich and expressive variant of Italian.)
A number of poems from the book can be read online for those interested in discovering his unique voice, with more forthcoming in 2023:
POEMS BY MARIO DELL’ARCO
“I Built a Wall”, “Dead Branches”, “Always a Cradle” & “Via dei Cappellari” On the Seawall
“Waning Moon” & “St. Peter’s Square” First Things
“Blackbird” and “The Illiterate Fish” One Art
For more on Mario dell’Arco’s work and life, please see my “On Translating Mario dell’Arco“.
I Built a Wall
It’s my fault. Stone by stone
by stone I built a wall
walled myself off from the world.
No way out now.
Even if I wanted to
feel your hand, one
step and I’d crack
my head on that wall.
-Mario dell’Arco
Marc Di Martino 