H E NRY F R E N D O
DIMECH’S Lost Prison
POEMS
PREAMBLE TO A LIFE OF MILITANCY
H E N RY F R ENDO
DIMECH’S Lost Prison
POEMS
PREAMBLE TO A LIFE OF MILITANCY
Published by 6 Strait Street, Valletta, Malta www.midseabooks.com
Literary Copyright Š Henry Frendo, 2014 Editorial Copyright Š Midsea Books Ltd, 2014 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the previous written permission of the authors and/or rightful owners.
Design & Layout Joseph Mizzi First published in 2014
ISBN: 978-99932-7-483-4
DIMECH'S LOST PRISON POEMS
This decorated photograph of an idolised Dimech in later years was found hanging like an icon over the bed of an ardent admirer, Salvu Astarita, in Hompesch Street, Zabbar, by the author, who photographed it in 1969 and had it published for the first time in 1971. It has since been3reproduced by others without crediting the original source, as is typical in Malta.
To my dear grandsons Hugo and Jerome
DIMECH'S LOST PRISON POEMS
CONTENTS
I GENERAL INTRODUCTION: The poetics of hope and despondency..................................... 9 II THE MANUSCRIPTS Doc. 1. Il Mio Passero Alì – Sonetto (signed) ............................. 28 Ad un Potente che mi guardò biecamente...................... 32 Ernesto e Nina (signed) .................................................. 33 Doc. 2. Canto I ........................................................................... 34 Doc. 3. Il Canto del Pastore (intialled)........................................ 38 In ciel v’è un Dio............................................................ 40 Doc. 4. Di altri beni non mi cal .................................................. 42 Doc. 5. Pazienza! (signed) ........................................................... 44 Doc. 6. L’Ape (signed and dated 19/6/1883) ............................ 46 Doc. 7. Sul Maltrattamento degli Animali (signed and dated 10/7/83) ........................................... 49 Doc. 8. Alla Formica (signed and dated 25/7/83) ..................... 53 Doc. 9. Ad una Canarina morta nel troppo calor del sole mentre stave covando le sue uova .................................. 56 Doc. 10. Alla mia Colomba (signed and dated 2/7/83) .............. 58 Doc. 11. Il Passero (signed and dated 7/9/83).............................. 60 Doc. 12 Ad Un Canrino in Gabbia (signed and dated 11/8/84) 64 Doc. 13. I Due Lupi – Sonetto (signed and dated 11/8/84) ........ 66 Doc. 14 Ad un Ragno che martirizzava una formica – Sonetto (signed and dated 14/8/84) ........................................... 67 5
HENRY FRENDO
Doc. 15. L’Acqua bollente al legno. Sonetto (signed and dated 13/8/84) ........................................... 69 Doc. 16. L’Incudine ed il Martello, Sonetto (signed and dated 23/6/1884) ....................................... 70 Doc. 17. Il Gallo. Sonetto. (signed and dated 24/6/1884) .......... 71 Doc. 18. L’Asino divenuto Cavallo. Sonetto (signed and dated 25/6/1884) ....................................... 72 Doc. 19. Al mio Passero venuto a posarsimi sul petto (signed and dated 23/7/84) ........................................... 74 Doc. 20. L’ubriacone..................................................................... 76 Il bestemmiatore............................................................. 76 Riflessioni d’un becchino nell’atto di sepellire un morto ...................................................... 77 Il vagito del bambino...................................................... 77 La speranza..................................................................... 77 Epitafio sulla tomba d’un potente.................................. 78 La Parola (signed and dated 7/5/84)............................. 78 Doc. 21. La Vie (A Chiarissimo Dr Don Gius. Zamm. (signed)... 79 Doc. 22. Al mio Amico L. Lanzon (initialed)................................ 81 A N.N. nel dì che fu scarcerato (signed).......................... 81 Doc. 23. Stabat Mater – versione italiana .................................... 83 Doc. 24. L’umana commedia (signed)........................................... 85 Doc. 25. Letter in Spanish from Ricardo Perera from Gibraltar (dated 14/11/1885) ....................................................... 91 Doc. 26. Letter in Spanish from Ricardo Perera from Gibraltar (dated 21/12/1885) .............................. 93 Doc. 27. ‘Mon cher et Révérend Pere’ (letter in French signed and dated 21 Decembre 1886, A M. Pierre Paul Borg) 96 Doc. 28. Ah! Ah!! Ah!!! Sonetto (signed)....................................... 98 Doc. 29. Oh! ti riveggo alfine (signed)........................................... 99 Doc. 30. Caro Emmanuele … (letter to Dimech dated 30/1/1882, unsigned).............. 100 Doc. 31. Matteo Callus, Vittima della tirannide. Sonetto (signed and dated 30/4/84)............................................ 101 III THE TRANSCRIPTS Il Mio Passero Alì...................................................................... 104 Canto I...................................................................................... 105 6
DIMECH'S LOST PRISON POEMS
Il Canto del Pastore.................................................................. 106 Pazienza.................................................................................... 107 L’Ape ........................................................................................ 108 Sul Maltrattamento degli Animali............................................ 109 Alla Formica.............................................................................. 109 Ad Una Canarina Morta nel Troppo Calor del Sole Mentre Strava Cavando le sue Uova.............................. 110 Alla Mia Colomba.................................................................... 111 Il Passero................................................................................... 111 Ad Un Canarino in Gabbia...................................................... 112 I Due Lupi................................................................................ 112 Ad Un Ragno che Martirizzava una Formica.......................... 113 L’Acqua Bollente al Legno........................................................ 114 L’Incudine ed il Martello.......................................................... 115 Il Gallo...................................................................................... 115 L’Asino Divenuto Cavallo......................................................... 116 Al Mio Passero Venuto Posarsimi sul Petto............................... 117 La Parola................................................................................... 118 To My Friend Mr Lewis Lanzon on Receiving his Portrait from America............................................... 119 La Vie........................................................................................ 120 A Matteo Callus........................................................................ 121 The Gibraltar Letters (November 1885) – Spanish Version and Translation.................................... 123 The Gibraltar Letters (December 1885)................................... 124 Letter to a Reverend Friend (‘Mon Cher et Révérend Pere), 1886.............................. 125
7
PART ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
DIMECH'S LOST PRISON POEMS
DIMECH’S PRISON POEMS The poetics of hope and despondency
HAVING unearthed the ‘taboo’ figure of Manuel Dimech (18601921) in three works between 1969 and 1972, and researched his nonrepatriation from Egypt in 1918-1921 (2012), I happen to have struck on a new manuscript find which is almost unbelievable. Somehow Manuel Dimech (now that one can mention his name without the need for introductions) never ceases to fascinate, one way or the other. I became intrigued when I had first heard of him as a thesis-probing undergraduate while conversing with the late Gino Muscat Azzopardi at his residence in Sliema in 1968. On the 50th anniversary of the Sette Giugno in 1969 I dedicated a full article in Il-Ħajja to the alleged role of ‘Dimechjani’ during the 1919 unrest, published later in Ir-Rivoluzzjoni Maltija tal-1919 (Empire Press, Floriana, 1970). More seriously, after my pioneering Honours thesis on ‘Dimechianism’ (1970), which earned a First Class, I made bold to start a series about him in the daily Il-Ħajja, which in 1970 I had been invited to edit. I never realised what a hornet’s nest I had struck. Sure enough Bishops Gonzi and Gerada ordered me immediately to stop the series, which I did doggedly after a first week of promised instalments. As I explain in the Dimech chapter of a recent volume, Europe and Empire (Midsea, 2012), it was with much difficulty and at considerable personal cost that I could retrieve my own MSS for a first pioneering book I wanted to publish on him (Lejn Tnissil ta’ Nazzjon: ittwemmin soċjo-politiku ta’ Manwel Dimech, KKM, 1971). 11
HENRY FRENDO
Doc. 1 28
DIMECH'S LOST PRISON POEMS
29
DIMECH'S LOST PRISON POEMS
INDEX
Academie Française, 107 Alighieri, Dante, 16 America, 7, 22, 119 And I Speak Still, 15 Astarita, Salvu, 12 Austrians, 22 Azzopardi, Ġeraldu, 12
Etna, 15 Europe and Empire, 11, 12, 14
Bandiera tal Maltin, Il-, 13, 14, 17, 26 Barbaro, Ramiro, 25 Bartolo, Evarist, 25 Berlin, Isaiah, 107 Blake, William, 18 Borg, Daniel, 18 Borg, Pierre Paul, 23, 125 Brincat, Joseph M., professor, 17 Britain, 12
Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 12 Gerada, Emanuele, bishop, 11 Gibraltar, 6, 7, 14, 23, 123, 124 Gonzi, Michael, bishop, 11 Gramsci, Antonio, 15 Great Siege, 25 Guelfi-Ghibellini, 24 Guida Generale di Malta e Gozo, 23
Callus, Mattew, 20, 24, 25, 121 Caravaggio, Michaelangelo Merisi da, 15 Carbonaro, 22 Carducci, Giosuè, 17 Castille Square, 12 Catholic, 13 Christian, 13 Degiorgio, Duminku, 12 Diana, 16 Divina Commedia, 16 Dun Karm, [Psaila], poet, 15, 24 Espinosa Rodriguez, Antonio, 18, 24, 122
Farruga, Migel or Miguel, 23, 124 Foucault, Michel, 13 Friggieri, Oliver, professor, 17
Ħajja, Il-, 11 Ivan u Prascovia, 13 Kordin, 15, 16, 18, 122 La cultura italiana a Malta, 17 Lanzon, Lewis, 22, 119 La Valette, grand master, 25 Le Bovier de Fontenelle, Bernard, 107 Lejn Tnissil ta’ Nazzjon, 11, 26 Le mie prigioni, 15, 17 Lenin, Vladimir, 13 Leopardi, Giacomo, poet, 17 Leopardian, 23
127
HENRY FRENDO
Malta, 13, 14 Malta University Press, 17 Marsa, 12 Marx, Karl, 13 Mazzini, Giuseppe, 12 Mifsud Bonnici, Carmelo, 15 Mintoff, Dom, 12 Mizzi, Fortunato, 12 Mizzian, 13 MLP (Malta Labour Party), 12 Muscat, Giov. or Jean, 23, 125 Muscat Azzopardi, Gino, 11 Neptune, 15 Pace, Pietro, bishop, 12, 17 Panzavecchian, 13 Party Politics in a Fortress Colony, 12, 13, 121 Pellico, Onorato, 22 Pellico, Silvio, 15, 17, 22 Perera, Ricardo, 23, 122, 123, 124 Philip II of Spain, king, 25 PN (Partit Nazzjonalista – Nationalist Party), 12, 13 Poplu, Il-,12 Porcheddu, Anna, dottoressa,17 Portuguese, 123 Quintana, AndrÊs, poet, 24 Risorgimento, 22
128
Rivoluzzjoni Maltija tal-1919, Ir-, 11 Romeo and Juliet, 24 Rundle, Leslie, governor, 12 Russia, 13 Sant, Lorry, 12 Sette Giugno, 11 Sicilians, 23 Sliema, 11 Spain, 25, 123, 124 Storia della letteratura maltese, 17 Trapani Galea Feriol, Igino, baron, 13 Tunisia, 17, 23 Un martire, 25 Valletta, 12, 13, 26 Vassalli, Mikiel Anton, 13 Virgilio, 16 Voltaire, 107 Vulcan, 15 Wordsworth, William, 16 Zabbar, 3, 12 Zammit, Giuseppe, or Dr Don Gius. Zammit, or Dr. Don Gius. Zamm., 12, 21, 26, 120, 125 Zammit, William, 26
Another fine book from
Make it yours now! www.midseabooks.com
(Maltese History and Social Studies Section)