Selected Poems

The first English translation of an Italian poet known for his uncompromising integrity and strong leftist sympathy for the working man.   Born in a sub-proletarian ghetto in Italy in 1930 under the fascist regime, Luigi Di Ruscio was an urchin running wild in the countryside, a Communist with clear anarchist leanings, a jack-of-all-trades. In 1957 he emigrated to Oslo, where he worked for forty years in a steel-wire factory, spending his evenings at the typewriter, delving with furious energy into his native Italian. Di Ruscio insisted that whereas the language of power is always a contrived, one-way fabrication, the language of the underprivileged is upfront and direct, aiming straight and sharp for the truth. Caustic as a shopfloor scouring agent, exhilarating in its overabundance, humor, and outspokenness, Selected Poems stands as a testament of tenacity, a record of class struggle, and a vital presence for our times.  

About the author

Luigi Di Ruscio (1930-2011) was an Italian poet and writer, who lived in Norway from 1957 through the end of his life. Cristina Viti is a translator working with Italian, English, and French.

Product details

• Authors: Luigi Di Ruscio, Cristina Viti
• Assisted by: Cristina Viti (Translation)
• Publisher: Seagull Books London Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 23.10.2023
• EAN: 9781803091587
• ISBN: 978-1-80309-158-7
• No. of pages: 300
• Dimensions: 236 mm x 159 mm x 23 mm
• Weight: 492 g
• Series: Italian List
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies