Day Lasts Forever: Selected Poems

Author: Mario dell'Arco

Translator: Marc Alan Di Martino

Publisher: World Poetry Books (2024)

The first English-language collection of post-war poet Mario dell’Arco, the most significant voice in modern Roman dialect poetry after Belli and Trilussa. Dell’Arco (1905–1996) wrote concise, epigrammatic poems about personal loss and everyday astonishment. His stance was skeptical and bittersweet, yet infused with a sense of epiphany at every turn. Deeply influenced by Martial, Horace and the poets of the Greek anthology, he published roughly 60 collections of Romanesco verse in a career which spanned half a century. His subjects included cats, wine, and of course his beloved native city of Rome. His work is colored by the death of his infant son, about whom he wrote often and movingly. Critically acclaimed in his lifetime—Pier Paolo Pasolini was an early admirer—his work has never before been available to a general readership in English.