Friday 11 November, 6pm

100 Poems, by Umberto Saba

Event celebrating the publication of the first English translation in the UK of a selection of one hundred poems by Umberto Saba, translated and edited by Patrick Worsnip, with a foreword by Angela Leighton

Umberto Saba (1883-1957)is one of the towering figures of Twentieth-Century Italian poetry, jointly with Eugenio Montale and Giuseppe Ungaretti. His Canzoniere (first published in 1921, but subsequently re-edited and expanded until its final edition of 1956) was much loved and embraced by younger poets, such as Vittorio Sereni, Giorgio Caproni, Franco Fortini, and Amelia Rosselli – and yet, it is still today rarely frequented by Italian readers, and, what’s more important for us today, virtually unknown to British readers. This is being redressed at last, by the volume Umberto Saba, 100 Poems, Edited and translated by Patrick Worsnip with a foreword by Angela Leighton, published by Carcanet earlier this year.

The event will start with a round-table discussion of the legacy, and relevance of Saba’s poetry today, chaired by Olmo Calzolari (Keble College), followed by the presentation of the volume, which then will be followed by a poetry reading in Italian and English. The Panel will include : Patrick Worsnip, translator of the volume, the poet and translator Jamie McKendrick, and Ela Tandello, Student Emerita of Christ Church, Oxford.