La parola da casa, Serena Piccoli

paulo leminski's work reminds me of anselm hollo's work, and perhaps that's why i think it is so incredibly good. they both manage to be irreverently humorous while being politically aware. that's part of what i like about the work of nicanor parra as well. interestingly enough, i often find that writers outside the U.S. manage to do that better than we do. (i think of hollo as ultimately an outside writer living here.)

on another note, ungaretti shows up in leminski's writing, and it makes me wonder how much influence ungaretti had on brazilian poets. i know that he taught for some time in brazil (see his sad poem on his son's death), and i see traces of his influence in brazilian poetry, but not speaking portugese, i don't know if i'm just spotting issues in translation.