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Trilussa is the roman poet Carlo Alberto Salustri, who chose this pen-name by creating an
anagram of his family name. He is the author of a great number of poems in roman dialect, some of which
are in the form of sonnets.
After Belli's verses had been published, by the end of the 19th century several other roman poets started using dialect.
Trilussa in his youth
and in maturity
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Far from being an intellectual - Trilussa had never been a brilliant
student - the street, much more than books, was his source of inspiration.
He was still a teenager when his first poems were examined by the teacher who taught him letters at school, Francesco Chiappini (remembered as the author of the very first roman dialect dictionary ever compiled); but he clearly told the young Carlo Alberto's mother that her son would have never been a poet. And for the rest of his life Chiappini kept criticizing Trilussa, despite his success, likely out of envy.
When a local paper published some of Trilussa's early works, they quickly gained popularity, and were soon collected in the first of his many titles.
His popularity gradually grew into real fame: between 1920 and 1930 he was rather well-known throughout Italy, and held recitals of his own dialect poems in many cities. Nevertheless,
he never related to literary clubs, to which he always preferred cafes and taverns. |
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the poet's bust in piazza Trilussa |
He always wore elegant suits, and hedonistically enjoyed the pleasures of life. He hated Futurism, which was rapidly spreading in those years, as the themes praised by the works of Marinetti and other members of this movement, such as action, speed, technology, war, and the like, were exactly opposite to the ones that Trilussa loved.
the poet at a cafe |
During the following years, though, Rome's society inevitably underwent deep changes, and the poet's inspiration, so much bound to the city's original atmospheres, gradually subsided; his golden years were over.
But still, just a few days before his death, he was appointed permanent member of the Senate for high merits in literature and art: "We are rich!" was his humorous comment to his old
governess in receiving the news, knowing well that it was merely a honorary title.
He was right, although Trilussa is the only one among Rome's dialect poets whose tomb is embellished by an original ancient Roman sarcophagus, a further acknowledgement by the City Council for his artistic achievements. |
the ancient sarcophagus that decorates the poet's burial place |
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Some 80 years before Trilussa's approach to poetry, Belli had been inspired by the sharp contrast between the high and the low social classes, and the hard struggle for life by the latter. But by the turn of the century, after the fall of the Papal State, Rome's social structure had undergone deep changes: the middle class, to which Trilussa originally belonged, had now grown to be the most common social rank among the city's population. So, in his works we find new, typical middle class characters, such as the housewife, the shop-keeper, the maid, etc.
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Besides writing verses, the poet also illustrated some of his sonnets and poems with
drawings, a small selection of which is featured on the left and below, revealing another side of his
artistic temperament.
Trilussa's dialect is rather different from the one used by Belli in his "Sonnets": much softer,
closer to standard Italian, as the roman dialect was actually spoken in those days, one of the effects of the population's cultural level, which in the late 1800s had considerably risen, after the fall of the Papal State. For this reason, he was criticized by some other dialect poets of his age.
Also the contents of their works clearly differs. While Belli used poetry as a pretext for writing satires, Trilussa used humour as a pretext for writing poems. As a direct consequence, Trilussa's compositions are less pungent, less bitter than Belli's scorching sonnets, but the type of humor they are both based upon is exactly the same.
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Another kind of character rather common in Trilussa's works are animals: in many of his poems, lions, monkeys, cats, dogs, pigs, mice, give life to amusing situations. Often they act and speak like the common people of Rome, ironically pointing out man's many defects and bad habits; the short poem called
L'Omo e la Scimmia ("the Man and the Monkey") is emblematic:
L'Omo disse a la Scimmia:
-- Sei brutta, dispettosa:
ma quanto sei ridicola!
ma quanto sei curiosa!
Quann'io te vedo, rido;
rido nun se sa quanto!... --
La Scimmia disse: -- Sfido!
T'arissomijo tanto!...
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The Man told the Monkey:
-- You are ugly, mischievous:
how ridiculous you are!
what a curious creature!
When I see you, I laugh;
I laugh, you have no idea how much!... --
The Monkey replied: -- That's obvious!
I resemble you so closely!...
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In doing this, Trilussa renewed a tradition deeply rooted in Western literature since the time of Aesop's fables (6th century BC), followed by the ones written by Phaedrus in ancient Rome (1st century AD) and by several other authors in time, up to the French poet La Fontaine (mid 17th century).
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some sketches by Trilussa
that refer to his verses |
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Among his many artistic merits, Trilussa is also remembered for having cooperated with the famous comedian Ettore Petrolini (1884-1936), with whom he wrote some brilliant gags in dialect.
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IN THE SHADE
While reading the usual newspaper,
snuggling in the shade of a haystack
I notice a hog, and I say: - see you, pig! -
I notice a donkey and I say: - see you, jackass! -
Maybe these animals won't understand me,
but at least I feel satisfied
with the opportunity of saying how things are for real
without the fear of landing in jail. |
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the plaque below the poet's bust, with one of his popular poems
