Ligurian:
# Vito Elio Petrucci (1923–2002)

Un atro grande sostegnitô do Firpo e pe çerti versci seu imitatô, o Petrucci o l’à compòsto, inta seu longa carrea de scrittô, ben ben de poexie che testemònian o seu amô pe Zena e pe-a natua e che de vòtte cazzan into folcloriximo, ma – inti megio momenti – se incantan inte unn’atmosfea seugnante, inte un tempo sospeiso a-o de feua do tempo, ch’o a l’arresta assæ suggestivo. O l’é stæto ascì un mai stanco promotô de unna zeneixitæ un pittin de mainea e no se contan i seu libbri de proverbi, regòrdi, reçette de coxiña, vege föto d’epoca e cartoliñe commentæ. Comme autô de comedie e regista tiatrale e radiofònico, o l’ea un fautô do tiatro do Govi, e o proponeiva torna i vegi testi govien, ò se donca o ne scriveiva di neuvi à imitaçion de quelli, inte unna generica tentativa de missa à giorno e ammodernamento, ma e ciù vòtte con di resultati ciuffito velletäi e inçerti.

A megio partia da poexia do Petrucci a l’é quella donde l’autô, in scê orme do Firpo, o descrive o paisaggio ligure inte di termini inspiæ e seugnanti, sospeiso inte unn’öra d’eternitæ e perfeçion idealizzâ, rompia solo che da reciammi improvvisti a-a concretessa da vitta de tutti i giorni.

Pòrto Pigheuggio a l’é unna caeta do monte de Portofin, tra Camoggi e Ponta Ciappa, con un nomme ch’o reciamma a scarscitæ do spaçio reservou a-e imbarcaçioin.

Uña de tematiche favoie da poexia do Petrucci a l’é a seu insatisfaçion pe-o mondo presente, donde i seunni e e speranse de l’infançia e da zoentù son scassæ sensa remedio da-a modernitæ, da neuvi conçetti, idee e pregiudiçi, da mæxima co-a spariçion da zeneixitæ.

Un senso de perduo abbandon fatalistico o spia d’inti versci do Petrucci, ligou sensa remedio a-a seu tæra e a-i seu miti.

In confronto a-a poexia do Firpo, unna ciù grande sensualitæ, un attaccâse fin da-e reixe a-a vitta e a-a tæra o contrassegna i versci do Petrucci.

Inta prospettiva do poeta fiña a mòrte a no mette poia; a representa a fin de tutti i ascidi, de tutti i doî, coscì comme a fin da corsa do tempo e un panico appossâse areo inta natua, inta quæ un o se identifica.

Into dialogo co-e prie vëgne scimbolizzou a fuxon areo do poeta co-a seu tæra e co-a seu çittæ, che pan sponciâlo à cheugge tutte e seu instanse, e seu vexende e à fâsene o portavoxe. Pe-o Petrucci a fin de Zena a l’é tutt’un co-a fin do mondo.

Chì, comme inta poexia apreuvo, curti squarsci e inluminaçioin liriche, inta piña tradiçion firpiaña.

Inte l’urtima accheuggeita de poexie, O monòlogo, compreisa inte l’antologia personale Un vento doçe (1993), o Petrucci o l’arriësce à combinâ temmi folcloristichi e tradiçionali co-e seu meditaçioin in sciâ fin e o de là da vitta, comme inte sta Serenata, donde o mistëio de dòppo a vitta o ven reportou a-a realitæ cotidiaña, quande l’òmmo o torna à cà da-a moggê, unna seia comme e atre.

English translation:
# Vito Elio Petrucci (1923–2002)

Petrucci – another great follower of Firpo and in some ways his imitator – composed, over the course of his long career, a large number of poems that testify to his love of Genoa and of nature, which sometimes descend into folklorism, but – in his finest moments – are enchanted in a dreamy atmosphere, in a time suspended outside of time, that is particularly evocative. He was also an indefatigable promoter of a somewhat conventional idea of “Genoeseness”, and he produced countless collections of proverbs, memories, cooking recipes, old period photos and annotated postcards. As a playwright and director of theater and radio, he was a proponent of Govi’s theater, as such repurposing old Govian texts, or writing new ones along the same lines, in a generic attempt to update and modernize them, but most of the time with rather wishful and dubious results.

The best part of Petrucci’s poetry is where the author, following in Firpo’s footsteps, describes the Ligurian landscape in inspired and dreamy terms, suspended in an aura of eternity and idealized perfection, broken only by sudden reminders of the concreteness of everyday life.

Porto Pidocchio is a small inlet of the Portofino headland, between Camogli and Punta Chiappa, whose name refers to the narrow space reserved for boats.

One of Petrucci’s favorite themes in his poetry is his dissatisfaction with the present world, in which the dreams and hopes of childhood and youth are irretrievably erased by modernity, new concepts, ideas and prejudices, hand in hand with the disappearance of “Genoeseness”.

A sense of lost fatalistic abandonment exhales from Petrucci’s verses, hopelessly tied to his land and its myths.

Compared to Firpo’s poetry, Petrucci’s verses are distinguished by a greater sensuality, a radical attachment to life and the earth.

In the poet’s perspective even death is not scary – it represents the end of all turmoil, all pain, as well as the end of the race of time and a total pantheistic immersion in nature, with which one identifies.

Foreshadowed in this dialogue with the stones is the poet’s complete fusion with his land and his city, which seem to incite him to take up all their concerns, their vicissitudes, and to become their spokesman. For Petrucci, the end of Genoa coincides with the end of the world itself.

Here, as in the following poem, brief glimpses and lyrical illuminations, in full Firpian tradition.

In his last collection of poems, O monòlogo, included in the personal anthology Un vento doçe (1993), Petrucci manages to combine folkloric and traditional themes with his meditations on the end and the beyond of life, as in this Serenade, where the mystery of the afterlife is brought back to everyday reality, in which a husband returns home to his wife, an evening like any other.