VALERIO MAGRELLI (Rome, 1957) is a poet of the younger generation whose books are most translated in foreign languages. He is teaching Modern French Literature at the University of Cassino. Magrelli has published the following books of poetry: Ora serrata retinae (Feltrinelli, 1980), Nature e venature (Nature and Veins) (Mondadori,1987), Esercizi di tiptologia (Typtology Lessons) (Einaudi, 1992), Didascalie per la lettura di un giornale (Captions for Reading a Newspaper) (Einaudi, 1999), and Poesie (1980–1992) e altre poesie (Poems and Other Poetry)(Einaudi, 1996) which comprises the first three poetry collections and up-to-that-point unpublished eight texts, and Disturbi del sistema binario (Disruptions of the Binary System)(2006). He has translated poems written by Valéry, Debussy, and Verlaine. He is the author of a monograph book on Joseph Joubert, a study on Dada and an anthology of the twentieth century French poetry. Magrelli writes essays as well. He has published a book on the visual aspects of Valéry's creative work Vedersi vedersi (See Yourself, See Yourself) (Einaudi, 2002) and a collection of prose Nel condominio di carne (In the Condominium of Flesh) (Einaudi, 2003). Two books of poems have been translated into the Serbian language so far: Prirode i šare (Nature e venature) (Oktoih, 1995) and Vežbe iz tiptologije (Esercizi di tiptologia) (Rad, Reč i misao, 2002).

As far as I am concerned, I like to tighten the string of sense in order to see how far it can endure before it gets loose and reaches the point when it snaps. However, I am in interested in this occurrence before it happens, while it is happening, but never after it has happened, i.e. when the signified has been rejected, because that leads us very far. Those are the shallows; they can be touched here and now. That is why I still think that the best answer can be found in the Immanuel Kant's representation of a dove: poetry like a dove spreads its wings and flies, using the material laws of language, clashes between a sound and a meaning, a verse and the world, words and experience, grammar and the truth.
Valerio Magrelli

19th March, at 19.00 – literary evening with Valerio Magrelli (Rome)
Participants: Valerio Magrelli, Dejan Ilic and Gojko Bozovic
20th March, at 12.00 - Valerio Magrelli's lecture: To translate: between experience and reflection

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