#Sicilian poetry.

[toughcookie01]

- Amy and Lino (from scratch - 2022)

[deadrlngers]

looks like i just fell in love with an italian milf on youtube ksdjfdkj

[famousblueraincoatmp3]

had the most strainous day possible yesterday but it was not as bad as i thought it would be and my meeting went well

[rocket-candy-heart]

Listened myself into a corner and now I don't have any audiobooks captivating enough to get me through this 4 inches of ribbing

[languageswithhomer]

❀𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒚𝒃𝒍𝒓 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐❀

Hi there! My name is Phi, I’m from the UK and I’m currently studying a Linguistics and Languages degree. My dream is to become a Speech Therapist (also an author, translator and language teacher on the side - I have a lot of dreams, and most of them are about words!) ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

why have I made this blog?

Since I am a distance-learning student, it can sometimes be difficult to find the motivation to study so I really hope this blog will hold me accountable and keep me productive.

I also really admire the studyblr & langblr communities and hope to make some friends who are similarly passionate about all things languages! ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

what languages will I post about?

Languages I speak/ am currently learning:

♡ English (Native/ C2)

Posts will be tagged #english and/or #english resources

♡ Castilian Spanish (intermediate to advanced/ B2 -> C1)

Posts will be tagged #castellano and/or #recursos castellano

Please note: I refer to the language as Castilian/ castellano instead of Spanish/ español out of respect for the co-official languages of Spain and also to recognise the language’s divergence from its Latin American variants

♡ German (Beginner/ A2)

Posts will be tagged #deutsch and/or #deutsche Ressourcen

⭒ I will make posts expanding on my background with each language soon ⭒

Languages I hope to start studying soon:

♡ Scottish Gaelic

I intend to begin independent study of Gàidhlig in September - October 2024 and I’m so excited!

♡ Russian

My friend and I are going to begin buddy learning Russian in March 2025 and I can’t wait!

♡ Catalan

I’m so excited to learn Catalan but, given its similarities with Spanish, I don’t want to confuse myself. So I intend to start learning it when I have finished my degree in May 2027!

⭒ If you have any questions or advice for me based on these languages, please don’t hesitate to drop me an ask or a message ⭒

Other languages I’m interested in (warning: there’s a lot):

♡ Irish, Welsh, Scots, Cornish, Manx, Greek, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch, Italian (especially Sicilian), Cherokee, Navajo, Guarani, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Korean, Yiddish, Hebrew, Bengali, Basque, French, Monegasque, Portuguese, Arabic, Ladino, Old/ Middle English, Hawaiian, Cantonese

What are my other passions?

♡ Books and poetry (I have a book blog @phireads if you’re interested)

♡ Writing

♡ Fibre arts (mainly knitting, crochet and sewing - though I really want to try embroidery and beading)

♡ Baking

♡ Reading

♡ Language conservation

♡ Wildlife (especially British, especially birds)

♡ Period Dramas

♡ History (with a focus on fashion history)

♡ Classics (as in Greco-Roman, my study buddy is a marble bust of the Greek poet, Homer, who is the namesake of this blog)

⭒ That’s all for now, I’ll be regularly posting study content at the end of September with the start of the academic year. So excited to meet you all! ⭒

[angevinyaoiz]

reading through the og Godfather novel and it's SO fun to do so as a Medievalhead because it's of course very modern And pulpy but also a lot of passages end up feeling to me like medieval style or mediev inspired epic poetry inspired fantasy kinda. Puzo writes about Sicilians like fantasy authors do about an Cool Fantasy Race. Also ofc like Coppola pointed out it's an archetypical "Once there was a King with Three Sons" story but amusingly medieval to me in that it has that structure, especially in ch 14 where it goes into Vito's history, of like "the great emperor conquered and subdued the neighboring dissenting clans," and then lists the different groups in detail with tangential references to their Great Deeds and notable characteristics. It even mixes a little with Real History by incorporating the Capones, tho in a derisive way. (Also amusing that it follows that kind of story structure of "our great kingdom expands and flourishes.......until the TURKS pulled some BULLSHIT" )

When Vito calls the 5 families it does more of that kind of epic poem style where it sits down and lists everyone and names everyone super specifically and their loyalties and (racial) epithets, and then after the debate he makes his Cool Poetic Speech about protecting Michael which feels like to me welling out of some ancient space. This feels like it should be in some kind of verse:

This and the way Sonny is described in the Vito chapters and leading up to his death has a very epic epithets quality to it as well like ah yes, he of the Big Penis, named for devotion, witness of the First Death, wielder of the Anglo-Saxon Gun, taker of the mantle, in cold honorable rage went forth and was slain

[olympic-paris]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …

August 30

c.2000 B.C. - 1200 B.C. – In Greek mythology, Daphnis was a Sicilian shepherd who was said to be the inventor of pastoral poetry. According to tradition, he was the son of Hermes and a nymph, despite which Daphnis himself was mortal.

Daphnis is also described and portrayed as an eromenos, that is, a boy-lover to older men. His mother was said to have exposed him under a laurel tree, where he was found by shepherds, who raised him, and named after the tree under which he was found. He was also sometimes said to be Hermes' favourite or beloved (eromenos) rather than his son.

Pan also fell in love with him and taught him to play the pan pipes.

A naiad was in love with him and promised to be faithful to him. However, he was seduced, with the aid of wine, by the daughter of a king, and, in revenge, this nymph either blinded him or turned him to stone.

c.1280 B.C. – Hercules (Greek: Herakles) was not only the strongest of the heroes (even as a baby he killed two great serpents with his bare hands) but he was also the craziest (he murdered his first three sons in a fit of madness) and the smartest (what he could not accomplish by brute strength he achieved through guile). What is less well known is that he was as heroic in bed as he was in battle.

One time he was invited by King Thespios to help him rid his land of a huge lion that was terrorizing the countryside. When the king set eyes on Hercules he had a better idea: "Come and stay the night at my palace, and rest yourself before the hunt," said the king to Hercules, "and meet my family." The king's family was made up mostly of his fifty virgin daughters, for whom he had not found fitting husbands until then. That night Hercules made love to forty nine of them (the fiftieth was too shy). The next morning, he and the king went off to hunt the lion, and nine months later all forty-nine daughters gave birth to sons.

But much as he loved women, Hercules loved young men no less. Plutarch said that the number of his lovers was beyond counting. What we know for sure is that he had more than even the god Apollo (who was also a practitioner of male love). Most stories about the beloved boys of Hercules have been lost or destroyed, but among his lovers were said to be the young heroes Admetos, Iphitos, and Euphemos, all of them Argonauts; Elacatas, honored by the yearly Elacatia games in Sparta; and Abderus, an Opian boy and son of Hermes, whose love for Hercules cost him his life, and who was honored with his own festival in the city that bore his name.

Abderus was the young man to whom Hercules entrusted the man-eating mares of King Diomedes. Not strong enough to keep them in check, they tore him to shreds and devoured him. Heartbroken, Hercules built the city of Abdera in his memory.

There was also a myth, now lost, that claimed that Eurystheus, the king for whom Hercules performs his labors, was one of his lovers, and that Hercules undertook the labors in order to please him. If so, then male love becomes the central motive force of the Hercules cycle, just as the love between Achilles and Patroclos is the fire that drives the story of the Iliad.

Also among his lovers, but not so unlucky as Abderus, were Philoctetes who inherited Hercules's bow and arrows, and who was called upon to use them in the Trojan war, and Nestor, the youngest son of King Neleus, whom he grew to love more than any other lad. Nireus, Adonis, Jason, Corythus, Stychius, and Phrynx were reputed to have been amongst his lovers as well.

Of all his boy-man lovers however, the ones he loved the best (besides Nestor) were Iolaos of Thebes, and Hylas of Argos. Iolaos, was also his nephew and, though only sixteen, his helper in many of his labors. It was said that their love was such that Hercules found those labors easier when Iolaos watched him. He was Hercules' charioteer and beloved, just like Patroclos was for Achilles.

As Plutarch tells us: "And as to the [male] loves of Hercules, it is difficult to record them because of their number; but those who think that Iolaos was one of them do to this day worship and honor him, and make their loved ones swear fidelity at his tomb." And also, "It is a tradition likewise that Iolaos, who assisted Hercules in his labors and fought at his side, was beloved of him; and Aristotle observes that even in his time lovers pledged their faith at Iolaos' tomb." The Thebans thought so highly of Iolaos that they worshiped him together with Hercules, named their gymnasium after him, and in his honor held yearly contests, the Iolaeia.

As for the love between Hercules and Hylas, the poet Theocritus had this to say: "We are not the first mortals to see beauty in what is beautiful. No, even Amphitryon's bronze-hearted son, who defeated the savage Nemean lion, loved a boy-charming Hylas, whose hair hung down in curls. And like a father with a dear son he taught him all the things which had made him a mighty man, and famous.

"And they were inseparable, being together both day and night. That way the boy might grow the way he wanted him to, and being by his side attain the true measure of a man. When Jason sailed after the golden fleece, and all the nobles went with him invited from every city, to rich Iolkos he came too, the man of many labors, son of noble Alcmena.

And brave Hylas in the flower of youth went with him aboard the Argo, the strong-thwarted ship, to bear his arrows and to guard his bow."

c.450 BC – Alcibiades (d.circa 404 BC), reared in the household of his guardian and uncle Pericles, he became the eromenos (youthful lover) and later intimate friend of Socrates, who saved his life in battle. According to Plutarch, Alcibiades "feared and reverenced Socrates alone, and despised the rest of his lovers".

His brilliance enabled him in 420 to become leader of the extreme democratic faction, and his imperialistic designs led Athens into an alliance with Argos and other foes of Sparta, a policy largely discredited by the Spartan victory at Mantinea.

He sponsored the plan for a Sicilian expedition to outflank Sparta. which ended after his recall, in the capture of thousands of Athenians, most of whom died in the salt mines where they were confined, Soon after the fleet reached Sicily, his enemies had recalled him on the pretext of his complicity in the mutilation of the Hermae, the phallic pillars marking boundaries between lots of land. The expedition, after his recall, resulted in the capture of thousands of Athenians, most of whom died in the salt mines where they were confined,

He escaped his accusers, however, to Sparta and became the advisor of the Spartan high command. Losing the confidence of the Spartans and accused of impregnating the wife of one of Sparta's two kings, he fled to Persia, then tried to win reinstatement at Athens by winning Persian support for the city and promoting an oligarchic revolution, but without success.

Then being appointed commander by the Athenian fleet at Samos, he displayed his military skills for several years and won a brilliant victory at Cyzicus in 410, but reverses in battle and political intrigue at home led to bis downfall, and he was finally murdered in Phrygia in 404.

Though an outstanding politician and military leader, Alcibiades compromised himself by the excesses of his sexual life, which was not confined to his own sex, but was uninhibitedly bisexual, as was typical of a member of the Athenian aristocracy. The Attic comedians scolded him for his adventures; Aristophanes wrote a play (now lost) entitled Triphales (the man with three penises), in which Alcibiades' erotic exploits were satirized.

In his youth, admired by the whole of Athens for his beauty, he bore on his coat of arms an Eros hurling a lightning bolt. Diogenes Laertius said of him that "when a young man, he separated men from their wives, and later, wives from their husbands," a comment on his bisexuality.

He gained a bad reputation for introducing luxurious practices into Athenian life, and even his dress was reproached for extravagance. He combined the ambitious political careerist and the bisexual dandy, a synthesis possible only in a society that tolerated homosexual expression and even a certain amount of heterosexual licence in its public figures. His physical beauty in itself impressed his contemporaries enough to remain an inseparable part of his historical image.

1981 – Dragoș Bucurenci is a Romanian communication strategist and coach, civic activist and television personality. In 2010, his Process Communication Model course was awarded Best Training of the Year Prize at the Romanian Business Edu Gala. In 2014 he joined the cabinet of the European Commissioner for Regional Policy as Communication Adviser, but left a year later citing "different work styles".

He founded MaiMultVerde, a well-known environmental organization in Romania. He was featured on the cover of Esquire Romania October 2008 edition, among "15 people who innovate, challenge and change the world we live in".

In 2016, he hosted the Romanian edition of the Survivor television series on ProTV.

Bucurenci was one of the first public figures in Romania who spoke openly about their sexuality. In a May 2008 piece for Elle magazine, he came out as bisexual.

 

1994 – UK: A panel of magistrates in London dismissed a paternity suit against singer Boy George for lack of evidence. By George is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, fashion designer and photographer. He is the lead singer of the Grammy and Brit Award-winning pop band Culture Club. At the height of the band's fame, during the 1980s, they recorded global hit songs such as "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)" and "Karma Chameleon".

George is known for his soulful voice and androgynous appearance. He was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the late 1970s to the early 1980s. In his autobiography Take It Like a Man, George stated that he had secret relationships with punk rock singer Kirk Brandon and Club drummer Jon Moss. He stated many of the songs he wrote for Culture Club were about his relationship with Moss.

2005 – Off-Broadway musical Naked Boys Singing! re-opens in Milwaukee after being closed by police on obscenity charges two weeks earlier. Naked Boys Singing! is a traditional American vaudeville-style musical revue, with book and direction by Robert Schrock, musical direction by Stephen Bates and choreography by Jeffry Denman, that features eight actors who sing and dance naked.

This campy Off-Broadway musical comedy opened on July 22, 1999 at the Actors' Playhouse in New York City. The show transferred to Theatre Four in March 2004, and again in 2005 to New World Stages Stage Four, until it closed on January 28, 2012. The show has no plot; it contains 15 songs, about various issues, such as gay life, male nudity, coming out, circumcision, and love. The official Off Broadway Revival opened at Theatre Row's Kirk Theatre on April 5, 2012 and is still enjoying a healthy run today.

2013 – A gay combat medic who challenged the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy while serving in Iraq, dies in a car crash in New York. Darren Manzella, 36, a former Army sergeant, went on national television in 2007 to reveal his sexual orientation, becoming the face of gay servicemen and women before being discharged in 2008 for publicly discussing his sexual identity.

He was a United States Army Sergeant, Army medic and gay activist from Portland, New York, who was discharged under the Don’t ask, don’t tell policy. Manzella had served in Iraq and Kuwait, and was stationed in Fort Hood, Texas. The policy was repealed in 2011.

Manzella married Javier Lapeira in Rochester on July 5, 2013. On August 29, 2013, Manzella was killed when an SUV hit him as he was in the act of pushing his disabled vehicle off the road in Pittsford, Monroe County, New York. A friend said Manzella had recently signed on as a reservist.

[daweyt]

what are your likes and dislikes ?

Things I Adore:

eating dark bitter chocolate and pair it with black bitter coffee; wearing big rings with fingerless gloves; (learning) languages — ancient greek, Latin, Farsi, Italian, Sicilian, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Ladino, Hebrew —; knitwear; jet black hair; weird shapes; the scent of patchouli paired with chocolate; horror silent films; things that are obscure, austere, ugly and odd; poisonous flowers; notes of absinthe, ink, or milk in perfumes; black blue lipstick that clashes with my skin tone; playing chess while listening to my favourite audiobooks; Russian literature; Arabic poetry; the melancholy and coldness of early winter mornings; candies — black licorice, nougat, anise candies and caramels —; the writings of Edgar Allan Poe; the intensity with which I feel my emotions; dark brown/black eyes and big noses; my simple desire for privacy; german expressionism; making my own clothes; wearing ties when there's no need for it; dark washed out green walls; having an altar for myself as a form of self-care like some sort of sanctuary; stained glass windows; eloquence and quick wit; taking a bath as a form of emotional and spiritual reset; intimacy; religious references in art; gothic architecture; the taboo; expanding my creativity; close-ups in films — for i love to focus on details whether it be a facial expression, the texture of someone's skin, a pair of hands desperately grasping —; the sound of the oud; salted popcorn; grieving the last book i read; ... and frankly, plenty of other things!

Things I Dislike / Don't Particularly Care For:

the pink-purple colour of heliotrope; talking about myself; anhedonia; the scent of lily of the valley; sparkling drinks; white/beige minimalist homes; large brand logos on clothes; action films; pessimism disguised as realism; feeling disconnected from myself; cruelty disguised as a joke; impatience; strawberries; catering to an 'aesthetic'; la choucroute (this is a french dish but I don't know how to translate that in english); young adult fiction; insects that crawl like worms and maggots; being told what to do or how to live my life; ... and a few others probably, I admit I don't know myself very well on that part.

[sciatu]

Idda Idda stiddi e pallida luna idda focu du suli etennu idda luci, ventu, futtuna idda paradisu, idda ‘nfennu idda sognu e fimmina vera idda u to ciatu, u to sangu idda estati e primavera idda acqua, terra, fangu idda ciauru, cielu, ciuri idda suggenti, idda u mari idda du jonnu ogni culuri idda da notti u sugnari idda cantu, vessu, puisia idda bidizza di ogni arti idda d’ogni notti mavaria d’ogni vita a megghiu parti Idda peddi, mani, capiddi idda cosci, minni, sessu i so occhi chini i stiddi a bucca unni sugnu pessu idda silenziu, idda canzuni idda parola, idda pinseru, idda ciareddu, idda liuni idda malizia, cori sinceru idda munti, idda vadduni, idda acqua, gebbia, vita giallu ranu, niru cabbuni idda a sula, a preferita idda nu jonnu piffettu idda ricchizza da campagna idda cosi giusti, rispettu idda soru, idda cumpagna idda ricoddi, idda dumani idda lacrimi, cori ruttu idda da vita u tempu, u pani idda di tuttu, sempri u tuttu

Lei, stelle e pallida luna, lei fuoco del sole eterno, lei luce, vento, fortuna, lei paradiso, lei inferno, lei sogno e vera donna, lei, il tuo respiro. Lei il tuo sangue, lei estate e primavera, lei acqua, terra, fango. Lei profumo, cielo, fiori, lei sorgente e lei mare, lei del giorno ogni colore, lei della notte il sognare. Lei canto, verso, poesia, lei bellezza di ogni arte, lei, di ogni notte magia, di ogni vita, la meglio parte. Lei pelle, mani capelli, lei cosce, seno, sesso, i suoi occhi pieni di stelle, la sua bocca dove sono perso. Lei silenzio, lei canzoni, lei parola, lei pensiero, lei agnello, lei leone, lei malizia, cuore sincero. Lei monti, lei vallata, lei acqua, cisterna, vita, giallo grano, nero carbone, lei la sola, la preferita. Lei giorno perfetto, lei ricchezza della campagna, lei giustizia, rispetto, lei sorella, lei compagna, lei ricordi, lei domani. Lei lacrime, cuore rotto, lei della vita tempo e pane, lei di tutto, sempre il tutto.

She, stars and pale moon, she fire of the eternal sun, she light, wind, fortune, she paradise, she hell, she dream, and true woman, she, your breath. She, your blood, she summer and spring, she water, earth, mud. She perfume, sky, flowers, she spring and she sea, she every color of the day, she dreaming of the night. She song, verse, poetry, she beauty of every art, she, of every night magic, of every life, the best part. She skin, hands, hair, she thighs, breasts, sex, her eyes full of stars, her mouth where I am lost. She silence, she songs, she word, she thought, she lamb, she lion, she malice, sincere heart. She mountains, she valley, she water, cistern, life, yellow wheat, black coal, she the only one, the favorite. She perfect day, she richness of the countryside, she justice, respect, she sister, she companion, she memories, she tomorrow. She tears, broken heart, she of life time and bread, she of everything, always everything.

[prometheuswounds]

i looooove love love writing persona poetry from photographs but i get so sad that i cannot somehow give the poem to the person pictured. hello young sicilian man who died before i was born. i loved you for an hour

[the-dread-hand]

Sorry it's been a few days everyone, After the big project Gustav and I had going on for take your secret spouse to work day, I had to take a few days to recuperate and visit one of our adopted daughters in the hospital. Don't worry she'll recover!

I can trust you right? Random people on my anonymous blog? *Doom laugh*

Well we have three secret adopted daughters right now, Amy is in the hospital, then there is Mary Anne, and Frankie.

You have no idea how difficult it is to think of and then remember aliases for everyone you know. So exhausting.

I'm all out of spoons

All I have left are knives

*pained laugh*

So ok, I need to focus, I swear if I'm not careful I completely forget what I'm doing & end up staring into space for an hour.

At work there was a mushroom gardening challenge. Fungus is so cool you know? I know you know.

You can not kill me in a way that matters is my goal mo energy. My husband has it, and by the time we're done with this project, so will I. I'm really really looking forward to that day.

So all in all, it was a good time. My husband did this whole themed garden patch to tell me he missed me, and that he thinks I'm beautiful.

I'm really not feeling beautiful right now. My boss yells at me all the time, and Daisy? *Deep breath* she talks to me like I'm, like fourteen? It is so infuriating. I graduated Summa Cum Laude, first in my class, in her class, IN HER CLASS!

I will never understand Neurotypicals. They're so weird, always so upset for no reason.

After that Amy woke up, she's a good kid and didn't tell any of the important family secrets. I'm really proud of her, & I got to see Frankie too, she's my oldest baby. She's grown up so much since we found her. We got to do a whole Improv scene. I was all NEVER MESS WITH A SICILIAN WHEN DEATH IS ON THE LINE!

That was fun

Then there was a whole.... Hide and seek in a hospital and I got to ummm I can't think of a good euphemism there actually. I did my job really well, listened to some lovely morbid poetry my husband taught him.

I think I'm kinda getting the hang of pretending to be this twitchy, incompetent, and soft. My coworkers are alarmingly willing to believe the worst of me. At least when I'm doing it on purpose, it doesn't hurt so bad.

I know Gustav is upset by how willing they are to use and discard me, but their lack of care is pretty central to the plan... And I need, I NEED FOR THEM TO NOT BE ABLE TO KILL ME IN A WAY THAT MATTERS .

I need that... and my husband, my dogs, and my good hunting knife to live and be free.

It's just... what I need

The Moon is pretty tonight. I miss you

[finishinglinepress]

FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: The Hundredth Hour by Kitt Healy

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The Hundredth Hour explores the experience of becoming a #mother, in all of its delirium, joy, magic and brutality. The #poems are both heartfelt and absurd, particular and universal. They both describe and embody the deep weirdness of suddenly arriving on the strange planet that is #parenthood, where the socks will never match, the hours both race and stall, and a kind of unhinged love sets up shop at the center of one’s self, changing us for better, for worse, forever.

Kitt Healy is a mother, writer, facilitator and movement strategist for sustainable agriculture organizations. She is of Irish, German and Sicilian settler descent and currently lives on the present and ancestral lands of the Ho-Chunk people in Madison, WI. She has an MS in Agroecology from UW-Madison and a BA in Political and Social Thought from University of Virginia. When her hands are not writing, they are likely busy planting seeds, sprinkling herbs on something tasty, or wrangling her two rascally children.

PRAISE FOR The Hundredth Hour by Kitt Healy

With wonder, ritual, and irreverence, Kitt Healy‘s The Hundredth Hour is an offering of her own spiritual and animal births. While each poem is deft and deeply curious, it is in the collage of these individual revelations that Healy also offers a healing-justice blueprint for the communal future we build with and of our bodies. Whether in the liminal between infant breath and bath steam, or the intricacies of maternal grief mirrored on a yellow-pollened river, The Hundredth Hour invites us to hold both our ordinary and our holy dreams close.

–Tegan Nia Swanson, Things We Found When the Water Went Down

Kitt Healy‘s words are a love letter to those in the heights and depths of early motherhood. They connect us through deliberate celebration of inner wisdom, grit, loneliness, and metamorphosis. The Hundredth Hour shines a light on an inner universe that sometimes feels beyond our sight.

–Laura Williams, PT, DPT, WCS, Founder of Hearth Healing

Please share/please repost

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[a-lwni]

i keep reading novels set in ancient greece. recent obsession, perhaps not unrelated to the recent anne carson retrospective. song of achilles i think might have been the first of the bunch, or maybe i started with natalie haynes. it doens’t matter really because i’ve ended with ferdia lennon.

glorious exploits is based off the legend that sicilian guards gave extra food to athenian prisoners who could recite lines from euripides. but the various dialects of ancient greek are rendered as irish brogues. and two sicilians decide to put on medea and the trojan women right there in the quarry where prisoners are rotting and starving to death.

i’m listening at work while receiving in the back office. the author reads it. does a fantastic job, on two separate occasions i’ve been brought to tears, had to go find the passages in the physical book

it’s the juxtaposition of an intense passion for poetry and the senselessness of human suffering. so close to each other, the friction. the friction.

[mikemaggio-blog]

Contemporary Italian Poetry in Translation / Poesia italiana contemporanea in traduzione

Introduction Introduzione I have always been interested in language: how it renders itself – or, rather, how we render it –both verbally and on the page. As a child, I was exposed to two languages: my native English and the Italian of my Sicilian grandparents. I remember one time sitting in a room of Italian immigrants, my grandparents among them, all speaking a language I could not…

[cruisesitaly]

I didn't go inside -

Norman wingDetail

The palace stands in the highest point of the ancient centre of the city, just above the first Punic settlements, whose remains can still be found in the basement.[citation needed]

The first building was a Norman castle. After the Normans invaded Sicily in 1072 (just 6 years after they conquered England) and established Palermo as the capital of the new County of Sicily, the palace was chosen as the main residence of the kings. In 1132 King Roger II added the famous Cappella Palatina to the complex.[1][additional citation(s) needed]

During the reign of the Swabian emperors, the palace maintained its administrative functions, and was the centre of the Sicilian School of poetry, but was seldom used as permanent seat of power, especially during the reign of Frederick II.[citation needed]

The Angevin and Aragonese kings preferred other seats. The palace returned to an important administrative role in the second half of the sixteenth century, when the Spanish viceroys chose it as their official residence, carrying out important reconstructions, aimed at their representative needs and their military ones, with the creation of a system of bastions.[citation needed]

The Gallery of the Palace in 1686

The Spanish Bourbons built additional reception rooms (la Sala Rossa, la Sala Gialla e la Sala Verde) and reconstructed the Sala d'Ercole, named for its frescos depicted the mythological hero, Hercules.[citation needed]

From 1946, the palace was the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly. The west wing (with the Porta Nuova) was assigned to the Italian Army and is the seat of the Southern Military Region.[citation needed]

During the sixties, it received comprehensive restorations under the direction of Rosario La Duca.[citation needed]

The palace is also the seat of the Astronomical Observatory of Palermo.[citation needed]

The palace contains the Cappella Palatina,[2] by far the best example of the so-called Norman–Arab–Byzantine style that prevailed in the 12th-century Sicily. The wonderful mosaics, the wooden roof, elaborately fretted and painted, and the marble incrustation of the lower part of the walls and the floor are very fine.[3] Of the palace itself the greater part was rebuilt and added in Aragonese times, but there are some other parts of Roger's work left, specially the hall called Sala Normanna.[3]