Umberto Saba

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Umberto Saba , actually Umberto Poli (born March 9, 1883 in Trieste , Austria-Hungary , † August 25, 1957 in Gorizia ) was an Italian poet and writer .

Life

Umberto Saba (1951)

Saba had an unhappy childhood, overshadowed by the absence of her father, who had left her Jewish mother after a short time. According to Jewish law, Saba was a Jew. He took the pseudonym Saba , which means "grandfather" in Hebrew. In Trieste, Saba worked for a long time in the second-hand bookshop at 30 Via San Nicolo, whose business premises are still there. Founded in 1904 as Libreria Mayländer, the bookstore was taken over by Saba in 1919, developed into a center of intellectual life in Trieste and is now called "Libreria Antiquaria Umberto Saba". James Joyce lived in the house at 30 Via San Nicolo from 1905 to 1906. After the enactment of the Italian Racial Laws ( leggi razziali ) in 1938, Saba lived in Paris, Florence, Rome and Milan. He did not return to his hometown until 1947.

Saba grew into the Trieste “cultura mitteleuropea” of the beginning of the 20th century, particularly influenced by Nietzsche and Freud , but also by the Italian literary tradition of the 19th century, especially by Giacomo Leopardi . He began to write his first works at the beginning of the 20th century: Poesie dell 'adolescenza e giovanili , 1900 to 1907, and Versi militari 1908.

His masterpieces followed: Trieste e una donna (1910–1912) and Serena disperazione (1913–1915), in which he uses extremely simple language to describe everyday feelings and domestic relationships in a multi-faceted and psychologically differentiated manner. It was not until 1975 that Ernesto was published, an autobiographical novella that Umberto Saba had already written in 1953, but not published. Ernesto was also made into a film in 1979 by Salvatore Samperi .

Umberto Saba was married to Carolina Wölfler from 1909 until her death in 1956, the couple had one daughter.

Works (selection)

Letters
  • Roberto Deidier (Ed.): Lettere a Sandro Penna . 1929-1940 . Archinto, Milan 1997, ISBN 88-7768-210-8 .
  • Gianfranca Lavezzi (Ed.): Atroce paese che amo. Lettere famigliari (1945-1953) . Bompiani, Milan 1987 (Nuova Corona; 19).
  • Aldo Marcovecchio (ed.): La spada d'Amore. Lettere scelte 1902-1957 . Mondadori, Milan 1983 (Medusa; 80).
Poetry
  • Canzoniere. Italian-German poems (“Il canzoniere”). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-608-93082-5 .
  • The broken glass. Italian-German poems . Piper, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-492-11351-6 .
prose
  • The poet, the dog and the chicken . Zsolnay, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-552-04922-3 .
  • Ernesto. Roman ("Ernesto"). 3rd edition Piper, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-492-11185-8 .
  • Trieste and a woman (“Trieste e una donna”). Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1962.

literature

  • The Poems of Trieste and Five Poems for the Game of Soccer: A Selection of the Best Poetry by Italian Master Umberto Saba, Translated in English , trans. A. Baruffi, Philadelphia, PA, LiteraryJoint Press, 2016
  • Myriam Carminati: Le chemin et la voix. Essai sur la poésie d'Umberto Saba . Prevue, Montpellier 1999, ISBN 2-84269-241-1 .
  • Silvana Ghiazza: Carlo Levi e Umberto Saba. Storia di un'amicizia . Dedalo, Bari 2002, ISBN 88-220-6254-X (Nuovo Biblioteca Dedalo; 254).
  • Nils Kohlmann: Trieste, herald of modernity. On the existential content of the works of Italo Svevo , Umberto Saba and Scipio Slataper . Publishing house Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2008, ISBN 978-3-639-04619-9 .
  • Manfred Lentzen: Italian poetry of the 20th century. From the avant-garde of the first decades to a new inwardness. Analecta Romanica series, issue 53. Klostermann, Frankfurt a. M. 1994, ISBN 3-465-02654-3 , pp. 150-169.
  • Stelio Mattioni: Storia di Umberto Saba . Camunia, Milan 1989, ISBN 88-7767-031-2 .
  • Marina Paino: La tentazione della leggerezza. Studio at Umberto Saba . Olschki, Florence 2009, ISBN 978-88-222-5873-1 .
  • Franck Venaille: Umberto Saba . Seghers, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-232-10020-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kofler / Bettschart, Triest (2015), p. 19
personal data
SURNAME Saba, Umberto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Poli, Umberto (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian poet and writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Trieste
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1957
Place of death Gorizia