{"id":145,"date":"2014-09-12T22:06:30","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T20:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stanleybarkan.natscammacca.info\/?p=145"},"modified":"2014-09-12T22:06:30","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T20:06:30","slug":"stanislao-g-puglieseraisins-with-almondspassuli-cu-mennuli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stanleybarkan.natscammacca.info\/?p=145","title":{"rendered":"Stanislao G. Pugliese:RAISINS WITH ALMONDS\/P\u00c0SSULI CU M\u00c8NNULI"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Categoria Articoli]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stanley H. Barkan<\/strong>, RAISINS WITH ALMONDS\/P\u00c0SSULI CU M\u00c8NNULI<\/em>, translated into Sicilian by Marco Scalabrino. Mineola, NY: Legas Publishing, 2013.<\/p>\n

For four decades, Stanley Barkan has been writing poetry and publishing that of others from around the world in his Cross-Cultural Communications publishing house, run, literally, from his house on Long Island. Almost single-handedly, but with the assistance of his talented artist wife Bebe Barkan, CCC has published in more than 50 different linguistic, ethnic, and cultural idioms. For this herculean cultural production, Barkan has been granted numerous awards and honors, with CCC being recognized with the Poor Richard\u2019s Award (in honor of Benjamin Franklin), for a quarter century of high quality publishing. Stanley Barkan\u2019s unceasing championing of foreign writers has meant that his own work has sometimes had to be put on the back burner, so to speak. But now, after thirteen years in the making, readers have the opportunity to read a remarkable collection of poetry that embraces Barkan\u2019s two great loves: Jewish culture and Sicily.<\/p>\n

Raisins with Almonds<\/em> has a dual character both in content and form. It is divided into two parts: Under the Apple Tree (Sutta l\u2019aruvulu di pumu) and Sicilian Light (Luci di Sicilia). Under the Apple Tree begins with an imaginative re-thinking of the original Hebrew creation stories, from the Creation of Adam and Eve (\u201cit was man \/ who wrote the myth\u201d) to the naming of animals (\u201cIt took a woman \/ to properly name \/ the birds of Paradise\u201d), to the rays of light (rather than horns), that appeared on the head of Moses (Michelangelo and his Mos\u00e8 in San Pietro in Vincoli were victims of a bad translation). There is a moving poem \u201cFather and Son\u201d that shifts across emotions and generations with grace; \u201cImmortality,\u201d a sardonic short piece; and \u201cThe Cats and Dogs of Tel Aviv\u201d who come to a mutually understood form of tolerance; a lesson to Jews and Muslims in the Middle East. There is the heartache of a child lost to war (\u201cStill Waiting for the Phone to Ring\u201d) and the curse of muteness (the worst for a poet) for \u201cForgetting Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then: what appears at first to be an abrupt break or switch in register to Sicily. But in re-reading these poems together, the reader will notice a common genetic code or heritage. The light, the cadences of language and history, the sacredness of the stranger and guest: Barkan ties Israel and Sicily together not by geographic proximity but by a shared cultural outlook. Wracked by sacred and secular history, by Eros and Thanatos, by Old Testament severity and Greek mythology, Israel and Sicily are palimpsests upon which the history of humanity is writ large and small.<\/p>\n

\u201cN\u00e8spuli\u201d are \u201cwetting my open \/ fingers \/ tangled with \/ garlands \/ of leaves and flowers\u201d; \u201cBabbaluci\u201d are from a time \u201cwhen a simple people \/ climbed out of the valleys \/ to find the wind \/ to touch the source.\u201d \u201cLemons\u201d are \u201cso numerous they fall unpicked \/ upon the mythic earth.\u201d In \u201cAntimanifesto\u201d the poet \u201cdescended down the trail \/ through vineyards where shepherds \/ in secret groves listened to tales \/ of Trinacrian messengers from the new world.\u201d Some poems are a melancholy reflection on the ruins left by the 1968 earthquake that ravaged Gibellina and parts of Sicily. As ever, Sicily invites meditation and contemplation: \u201cTranquilit\u00e0\u201d fosters a sense that \u201cI am in between \/ in the center of my being. \/ The present is present, \/ the past does not intrude. \/ Mind & body are one. \/ No more where I am, I am not.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the English originals on the verso pages, Scalabrino\u2019s Sicilian renderings on the recto pages and photos by Giuseppe Mineo of Barkan in Sicily, Raisins with Almonds<\/em> is a charming, melodic and musical tribute to two extraordinary cultures.<\/p>\n

\u2014Stanislao G. Pugliese<\/strong><\/p>\n

Queensboro Unico Distinguished Professor of Italian and Italian American Studies<\/p>\n

Hofstra University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Categoria Articoli] Stanley H. Barkan, RAISINS WITH ALMONDS\/P\u00c0SSULI CU M\u00c8NNULI, translated into Sicilian by Marco Scalabrino. Mineola, NY: Legas Publishing, 2013. For four decades, Stanley Barkan has been writing poetry and publishing that of others from around the world in his Cross-Cultural Communications publishing house, run, literally, from his house on Long Island. Almost single-handedly, … <\/p>\n

Leggi tutto “Stanislao G. Pugliese:RAISINS WITH ALMONDS\/P\u00c0SSULI CU M\u00c8NNULI”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stanleybarkan.natscammacca.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stanleybarkan.natscammacca.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stanleybarkan.natscammacca.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stanleybarkan.natscammacca.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stanleybarkan.natscammacca.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stanleybarkan.natscammacca.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stanleybarkan.natscammacca.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stanleybarkan.natscammacca.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stanleybarkan.natscammacca.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}