NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

PASO DOBLE is an intriguing experiment in bilingual poetry. The lines of each poem alternate between Italian and English, each poet writing in her native language (Crowe Serrano in English, Ferramosca in Italian). Each poem is then also offered in a mirror translation (the Italian lines becoming English and vice versa).

I thoroughly enjoyed these poems, drifting between two languages as one does in a conversation with people who all speak two languages with more or less equal ease. There is a real sense of the poets finding the language that expresses better what they want to say at a particular point in the poem, though usually, whatever is said, sounds more beautiful in Italian.

(When quoting from these poems, I have quoted from the original language first and the translation second in italics).

	...my curvilinear letters, fragments
	of imperfect freedom. These are my gift

	... mie lettere curvilinee, frammenti
	di liberta imperfetta. Ecco il mio dono 

	Lasciarsi ardere i giorni
	nello stupore costruirsi
	un corpo musicale col legno
	delle piccole cose, chi vibri
	lontanissimo, canto rosso
	di bacche cardiaco, inimitabile
	festa di geni e destino.

	Let your days burn out
	in wonder, build yourself
	a musical body from the wood
	of small things vibrating far away, 
	a red, heart like song
	of berries, an inimitable
	festival of genes and fate.

	una tua gomitata, ecco il deja-vu
	and we're off in a present past

	a light nudge from you and look! deja-vu
	e ci tuffiamo in un presente pasato 

'poetic dialogue transgressing any language barrier'

I would hope that the English speaking reader with no knowledge of Italian would be inspired to learn Italian as a result of reading this book, but suspect that it would be more likely that many would be put off before they picked the book up. So, much as I enjoyed both the concept and the poetry itself I suspect there may be a limited audience for this work, certainly in the UK.

However for those who do speak both English and Italian, I would definitely recommend this book!