The very recent discovery of some unpublished letters by Dino Campana (included in the Tallone edition; here three fragments) trace the feverish movements of the poet-traveler during the last year he lived as a free man before his arrest in Novara (11-13 September 1917 ) and the subsequent internment in the asylum of Castel De ‘Pulci, in January 1918, where he remained until his death in 1932.
The letters recently emerged from the archive of Publisher Tallone. Eleonora Tango, the wife of the painter Cesare Tallone, and her sister Virginia are among the few people who understood Campana’s genius and welcomed him, reciprocated by the affection and gratitude of the poet, in the most difficult moments of his relationship with Sibilla Aleramo. Madly in love with the writer, thirsty for love in a hostile society, attachment to Sibyl soon becomes obsessive.
She walks away, but she doesn’t want to leave him alone in his exaltation. He turns to Eleonora and Virginia to watch over him. Campana desperately seeks her out and, through Eleonora, sends her letters to Aleramo: «Forgive me, forgive beloved Sibillina, I cannot live without you. I don’t want you to see you and kiss your feet if you want. I get up to write to you, it is now day, all night I had a horrible heartache. You, your existence is all I have left in life. Don’t take it off me […]».
In the light of the new epistolary findings, the essay by Gigliola Tallone which closes the volume of Orphic songs he places precisely the events of that crucial year: «Sibilla is tempted to visit him. At the beginning of March he wrote to Teresa, daughter of Eleonora, from Florence: “[…] I am still busy here for translations until around 250, […] then I’ll have about twenty days in which I can move […] Could you wait for me in Milan? Then perhaps I would accompany you to Alpignano, and from there I would make a run to Rubiana, where my sick friend, after so much silence, writes me to go and see him; for Easter. Answer me, Teresa, and I’ll solve it. There is another perspective. Postpone the trip to Piedmont later, May or June … ”». But the meeting will not happen and when, at the end of April, Campana goes to Florence, she hides despite him desperately looking for her. Dino’s desperation is growing; on 14 August from Marradi he sent a postcard to Eleonora to ask for news of Sibilla: “Expert tip, rich alms, to whom, seeing me the smallest child in the world, will want to give me news of my mother who taught me love, the divine Sibyl , dead or alive virgin or … Have pity on me lady. I won’t do Rina any harm [Sibilla]”. In another letter, he wrote lapidary: «Sweet Lady, my motto? For life or for death! Thanks for your kind words and Hello. Dino Campana ». Still in August, still from Marradi, he writes to Virginia asking to help him against the persecutions that have ruined his health: “[…] I still do not know why everyone believes his right to insult me with a stubbornness worthy indeed of a better cause. Why do I have to be a poor skin that everyone has the right to beat? … »(Tallone Archive, Milan). An ironic and tragic letter, “to the Bell”, and at the same time disturbing because it precedes, perhaps less than a month, the arrest in Novara which will take place on 11 September.
Eleonora still believes that Sibilla and Dino can reconcile. Dino confesses to Eleonora that he «doesn’t want anything from Sibilla. He can now consider it as too good a thing. Dino accepts everything from Sibilla. Admit everything and wait. I want us to forgive ourselves so it can’t last. I have suffered in an inhuman way. I want to see Sibilla ».
But the meeting between Sibyl and Dino took place in prison September 13 will mark the agonizing separation between the two.
A tragic epilogue that continues to increase the myth of this titanic poet, outlined in the preface by Davide Rondoni: «Too much has been written around the psychic profile of the poet, his troubles with justice and health. His death in 1932 after a long internment in an asylum in Castel De ‘Pulci gave peace to his soul but not to his ghost, hunted by hounds of various kinds and elegance. But as is true for any life marked by sufferings of this kind, even for Dino Campana’s it is necessary to respect things that remain mysterious. And to think of understanding a poet by dwelling on his biography is a mistake as trivial as it is repeated in schools. No authentic poet writes as an exhibition of his own vicissitude. If anything, because that biographical matter, which to the poet himself seems mysterious and “unmanageable” (it is not necessary to have obvious psychic disorders to be each, in his own way, indecipherable) is illuminated, elevated but not in a moralistic or exemplary sense, but placed at the level in which the word can capture the signal and share it, being it, the word, our radar to know a little about the world, others and ourselves, the mystery that stirs us. So he too sought this capture, thus pursuing, perhaps like all of us, a kind of recognition ».
The 1914 book in a limited edition version
I Orphic songs published by Tallone Editore reproduce the 1914 edition, with the correction of some typos. It is a limited edition art edition on pure cotton paper (pp. 170, and 300) with three unpublished letters by Dino Campana, the preface by Davide Rondoni and a study by Gigliola Tallone. Of the 173 hand-made copies in movable type, those numbered from 1 to 40 are illustrated by 8 engravings by Mimmo Paladino made to this (details on request); another 33 are printed with special papers. Many of the major publishers have i Orphic songs: the most recent release is this year (Newton Compton). Also: Einaudi (2014), Garzanti (Canti Orfici and other poems, 2007), Bur (1989) e Tea (Works. Orphic songs. Scattered verses and writings published in life. Unpublished, 1989).
June 20, 2021 (change June 20, 2021 | 20:32)
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