The poet Alda Merini died in hospital in Milan yesterday after a long battle with cancer.
Considered one of the most important poetic voices of twentieth century Italy, Merini was often a troubled soul and she spent several periods in mental health facilities. There, she said, she found “life”. She became even more tormented after the death of her second husband in 1986. Yet she often displayed an irreverent wit which she could turn against herself, writing:
“I don’t like paradise as they probably don’t have obsessions there” (Aphorisms).
In 2004 she asked for a “hot man” as a seventy-third birthday present. She got, and enjoyed, a visit from the stripper Ghibly.
Born in Milan in 1931, Merini began writing poetry at 16, publishing her first collection, “La presenza di Orfeo”, when she was 22. She went on to win many Italian literary prizes and was nominated for the Nobel Prize by the Académie Francaise in 1996 and by PEN Italia in 2001.
Whilst her early poems are full of hope, her later works reflect her inner torment and longing for love. Sadly, she had many unrequited loves.
In Italy her 1984 collection, La Terra Santa (The Holy Land) is considered her greatest work and it won her the Premio Librex Montale in 1993. The most comprehensive collection of her poems in English is Love Lessons, translated by the American poet Susan Stewart.
Tributes to Merini are pouring in today, not least from the staff of the hospital where she died. Her sensitivity impressed her carers and she dedicated poems to them. President Napolitano has said that Italy has lost “an inspired and limpid poetic voice.”
We selected three videos. The first one is an interview to the poet, the second contains one of her poems "Terra Santa" and the last one is a song which title is "Prima di Venire" - interpreted by Milva, a famous Italian singer and written by Merini.
Alda Merini, poet: 21.3.31 – 1.11.09. Visit the Official Website.
