Ligurian:
# Gian Giacomo Cavallo (1590–1658)

O Gian Giacomo Cavallo o l’é tegnuo pe-o ciù grande poeta in zeneise de tutti i tempi; nasciuo verso a fin do secolo sezzen e mòrto do 1658, o ne se presenta con tutte e virtù e con tutti i mendi de l’etæ do baròcco. O no saià un caxo se o mascimo sprandô da poexia in ligure o vëgne toccou co-o conçettiximo, che in italian – a-o conträio – o l’à posciuo dâ vitta solo che a-e contorscioin fatte e lambiccæ do G.B. Marino e di seu scoläi. Maniman a lengua ligure, mai tanto concreta pe seu natua, a vëgne à taggio ciù che l’italian pe esprimme i conçetti ciù astræti e ciù sottî, in deuviâ e poule de tutti i giorni e ottegnî coscì, pe contrasto e curtoçircuito, a poexia; o mæximo o l’é stæto dito de l’ingleise de Shakespeare e de John Donne, di quæ e metafore e e raxoin ardie – segondo çertidun – saieivan astrunnæ a-o de feua da seu lengua de nascion.

O baròcco o nasce insemme co-e primme grende crixi do mondo moderno; o pensceo de Pascal e de Cartexo, a Reforma e a Contrareforma semeñan dubiansa inte l’òmmo de alantô, chi comensa à ëse besiggiou da-a farta do senso da vitta. E o Cavallo o ne parla pròpio de sta anscëtæ mai tanto moderna, sotta a finçion da poexia petrarchesca de peñe d’amô, inte unna fuxon perfetta tra forma e sentimento, donde a pascion amosa a l’é, scì, un attesto pe scrive un tòcco de bravua, ma a no se peu manco dî pe in davei fäsa, apreuvo ch’a l’assumme unna seu veitæ in caxon de l’arte do poeta; ne piaxieiva a descriçion da ciæabella mæximo se i patimenti do Cavallo foïsan tutti inventæ, perché tutti inte quarche momento semmo stæti sbattuggiæ in sa e in là da-o destin ò da-a pascion.

O Cavallo o pòrta avanti ascì a tradiçion di encòmi a-i duxi, e anche lì o tocca de çimme mai stæte toccæ in avanti: pe niatri no gh’à de importansa se i prinçipi stæti cantæ da-o Cavallo se meitavan pe in davei o seu lözo, quello che conta son e figue ancon oua fresche e vive da seu imaginaçion: e ombriñe, i loasci, o grongo, a moeña, e anghille e i atri pesci che festezzan l’eleçion à Duxe do Zòrzo Çentuion, con fâ «treppi e stravagançe da stupî» inte unna fantaxia mainaesca, ch’a l’arresta inta memöia do lettô.

De belle vòtte e cansoin do Cavallo reseunnan e melodie do conterranio e contemporaneo Gabriê Ciabrea, che inte ciù occaxoin o gh’aiva manifestou a seu astimma.

Un puritan orrô pe-a dònna, pöcassæ contrareformista e masochistico, o sciòrte feua inte çerti versci do Cavallo, ma no ghe veu guæi à accapî che ascì a descriçion di besiggi d’amô o l’é un attesto pe-i seu raffinatiscimi virtosiximi stilistichi.

Inte st’avvoxâ öde pe l’eleçion de Zòrzo Centurion a-a supremma magistratua da Repubrica de Zena, o Cavallo o descceiga tutta a seu abilitæ retòrica e poetica, se ciammemmo poexia unna straordinäia capaçitæ tecnica e linguistica inta construçion di versci. Comme o fa osservâ o Toso, «tutto l’imaginäio de l’öde o l’é de fæto construto in sce de imagine e metafore artefiçiose donde a natua evocâ a l’à in realtæ pöchiscimo spaçio». Ma se porrieiva dî che a çelebraçion do Duxe a l’é pe-o Cavallo un attesto pe mette in mostra a seu meistria, sciben che no manca unna preisa de poxiçion politica in favô da corrente senatoiale repubrichista, pe contra a-i sostegnitoî de un cangiamento in senso assolutista into goerno do Stato. O Duxe o l’é, infæti, pe-o Cavallo e pe-i repubrichisti, o poæ do pòpolo, e o l’é stæto misso da-o Segnô à cappo da Repubrica pe commandâ a-o pòsto do pòpolo che ghe pertocca a sovranitæ, ma che da pe lê o no saieiva bon d’exerçitâla. Ma a vea raxon ch’a l’anima a poexia do Cavallo, a-o de là do tema trattou, a stà delongo inta seu reçerca de inmortalitæ letteräia, o procuâse unna famma chi vagghe a-o de là da mòrte.

English translation:
# Gian Giacomo Cavalli (1590–1658)

Gian Giacomo Cavalli is considered the greatest Ligurian language poet of all time; born towards the end of the 16th century and died in 1658, he presents us with all the virtues and all the defects of the Baroque age. It is no coincidence that the peak of Ligurian poetry is reached with conceptualism, which in Italian – on the contrary – could only give rise to the insipid and lisping contortions of G.B. Marino and his followers. Perhaps the Ligurian language, so concrete by nature, is more useful than Italian in expressing the most abstract and subtlest concepts, using everyday words and thus achieving, by contrast and short-circuiting, poetry; the same has been said of the English of Shakespeare and John Donne, whose metaphors and bold reasoning – according to some – would be out of tune outside their native tongue.

Baroque was born with the first great crises of the modern world; the thought of Pascal and Descartes, the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation sowed doubts in people of the time, who began to be tormented by the lack of meaning in life. Cavalli speaks to us of this very modern anxiety, under the pretense of Petrarch’s poetry of love pains, in a perfect fusion of form and sentiment, where love passion is – it’s true – a pretext for writing a piece of bravura, but it cannot even be called truly false, since it takes on a truth of its own thanks to the poet’s art; we would like the description of the firefly even if Cavalli’s sufferings were all invented, because we all have, at some time or another, been thrown off balance here and there by fate or passion.

Cavalli also carries on the tradition of Doge encomiums, and even there he touches heights never before reached; for us it does not matter whether the princes that Cavalli sings of really deserved his praise; what matters are the figures still fresh and alive in his imagination: the ombrine, the bass, the bronco, the moray, the eels and the other fish that celebrated Giorgio Centurione’s election as Doge, playing “tricks and extravagances to amaze” in a seafaring fantasy that will live on in the reader’s memory.

In many cases, Cavalli’s songs echo the melodies of his fellow countryman and contemporary Gabriello Chiabrera, who demonstrated his high esteem of Cavalli on several occasions.

A puritanical horror of woman, vaguely counter-reformist and masochistic, appears in some of Cavalli’s verses, but one quickly realises that the description of love torments is also a pretext for his refined stylistic virtuosity.

In this famous ode for the election of Giorgio Centurione to the supreme magistracy of the Republic of Genoa, Cavalli deploys all his rhetorical and poetic skill, if poetry is also an extraordinary technical and linguistic ability in the construction of verse. As Toso points out, “the whole imagery of the ode is in fact built on artificial images and metaphors where the evoked nature actually has very little space”. But it could be said that the celebration of the Doge is a pretext for Cavalli to show off his mastery, although there is no lack of political stance in favour of the republican senatorial current, against the supporters of an absolutist change in the government of the state. The doge is, in fact, for Cavalli and the republicans, the father of the people, and has been placed by God at the head of the Republic to lead in place of the people, to whom sovereignty is due, but who alone would not be able to exercise it. But what really animates Cavalli’s poetry, beyond the subject matter, is always his quest for literary immortality, to procure a fame beyond death.