Federica Galetto
(alias Federica Nightingale) is an
emerging Italian poet from Turin, Italy.
This small electronic book, which takes
its title from Emily Jane Bronte's poem,
"Silent is the House," nestles several
of Federica Galetto's poems inside a
collection of poems by other poets
including Longfellow, Donne,
Bronte, Baudelaire, and Kay Ryan,
all of which are provided both in
English and Italian. Federica Galleto,
also an artist, illustrates some
of these poems with electronic collages.
The titles of her poems included in this
collection are, in English, "The dark
side of the hill," "The conversation,"
"I saw the crows passing over," "What I
want," "Never ask for love" and "This is
the place where I'd love to be."
Her poetry is musical and attentive to
natural details. Her themes are
love, nature and metaphysical realities.
And, as with most Italian poetry, her
poems contain rhythms and rhymes so
beautiful in that melodic language, that
English translations can't completely
capture her work. Here, for
example, are the opening lines to her
poem, "I saw the crows passing over,"
Ho visto passare i corvi
Ho visto passare I corvi
sulla mia casa,
in un canto roco sui tetti
E ho visto piangere una tortora
perduta nella corsa,
le lepri rosicchiare
il legno del nocciolo
Per fame arrotano I denti ai
fusti
E ancora si tendon le orecchie a
questo
Andare,
I saw the crows passing over
I saw the crows passing over
my house
in a hoarse singing on the roofs
And I saw a dove crying,
lost in the race,
hares chewing the hazel wood
sharpening their teeth so as not
to starve
And yet we tend our ears to this
Going,
Her poems have been translated into
several anthologies in Italy. At the end
of July 2010, Galetto published her
first book of poems: "Scorrono le cose
controvento" (Lietocolle Editore 2010,
and in 2011 her book of poems in
English: "Ode from a nightingale" was
published by Masque Publishing.
This charming e-book is available for
download in pdf form from Errant
Editions; however, the book can only be
read by downloading, free, Adobe Digital
Editions software, which is necessary to
read the electronic book. The software
can be downloaded directly upon
purchasing the book.
