I believe that the final statement may have been more than satisfactory, that that spirit of justice that has always animated it never failed, even though today the injustice reigns supreme as always. The important thing is trying, to have a clear conscience, and if there was not a result you can also regrettable, but in any case it was nice having tried.
Masina is not a classical poet, is one who tries to take care especially to the point, the message you want to communicate and yet his poems are not skinny sequelae of ways, but they are also imbued with a certain refinement of language, the choice of appropriate images, and an appreciable lightness, which makes reading easier and certainly enjoyable.
Roughly the work consists of five anthologies, each of which obviously characterized by lyrical with the same theme, a circumstance even more evident in the one entitled And the soul blossomed, consisting of a single poem of the same title.
Does not seem right not to dwell on some poems, at least the ones that I liked, and this is when from the buffalo and the child carry the verses of old 2. I will be perhaps for the age, because it certainly is not young, but I found this a touch of creative genius that can express so much in little.
“Il vento ha portato via il cappello del vecchio, / lo insegue il vecchio a piccoli passi veloci. / Ride il bambino che lo crede ubriaco. / La vecchia moglie prega / che al suo uomo il vento / non porti via il pensiero.”.
There is the whole life cycle in these few verses, with the elderly, who in his Sunset Boulevard, stands to lose the reason and with the baby, laughing at the situation, unaware that one day he too will end up chasing a hat; seems little and instead is so, it is a wonderful synthesis which in its stark reality not grieve, but outlining calmly lifetime.
The strength of here, in Gaza (from post cards) is all in the approach between two rather different periods, between what he saw Mary stopping there to breastfeed Jesus while he was fleeing from Herod to Egypt, with everything from an outline idyll rural precisely those who, wherever he goes, brings the good and peace, and the harsh reality of a territory always haunted by the war, with children who seem predestined victims; the lock is one of those you never forget: “…/ Oggi i bambini a Gaza muoiono di ferite, / di fame, di paure, di macerie infinite. / Shemà, Israel, Shemà: / Erode è ancora qua. “
More than a few interesting poems of this collection and it would be daunting to mention all, but one in particular I intend to make some depth, maybe a note, a reflection: I refer to Death playful (from Expectations and fear); in fact affects the convivial tone with which speaks of death, figured in a non-dramatic as what it is, a fact that is quite natural, as the birth. Now in a person in later years is normal to have often found the death, which is expected around the corner, but talk to these tones, it is also true that a method can be superstitious, it is certainly not common, it is also symptom of a man who on the whole is satisfied with his life and who accepts with equanimity his earthly end. Special and appreciated here is closed, that, for certain tones, makes me think of that beautiful poem by Nazim Hikmet which is titled il mio funerale.
“./ La banda musicale / del mio funerale /(suonatemi l’Internazionale!) / già si è messa in cammino, / scende per vie senza fretta, /b grancassa e bombardino / l’addio per un vecchio bambino, / con l’abito scuro, / dall’ombra dipinto sul muro.”
It's almost a party, a return to where you started, is once again in the knowledge that everything has an end, and that this is life.
And when it came to the last I closed the book, I felt within me the serenity that accompanies Ettore Masina. Slowly crept into my mind and yet I rejoice, and this is certainly not little, indeed is so, is something indefinable, yet tangible, emotion well etched in my personal library of memories.
The buffalo and the child is then certainly to read and meditate; you will be pleasantly surprised and rejoice at the end of the great serenity that manages to infuse.
Ettore Masina (Breno, 1928), journalist and writer, one of the most important Italian critic of Catholicism, followed as Vatican correspondent of the newspaper "The Day" the Second Vatican Council and in 1964 he founded the worker priest Paul Gauthier association international solidarity "Network Radiè Resch" (named after a Palestinian girl died of starvation in his dilapidated house). After working at TG2, from 1983 to 1992 was deputy in the group of independent Left and X legislature was president of the Permanent Committee for Human Rights. Among his essays : Il Dio in ginocchio (Rusconi, 1982), Il califfo ci manda a dire, (Rusconi, 1983), Un inverno al Sud. Cile, Vietnam, Sudafrica, Palestina(Marietti, 1992), L'airone di Orbetello. Storia e storie di un cattocomunista(Rubbettino, 2005). Tra i romanzi, Il ferro e il miele (Rusconi, 1983), Comprare un santo (Camunia, 1994), Il Vincere (San Paolo, 1994).
Renzo Montagnoli