Barbara Carle


Barbara Carle is a French-American poet, critic, translator and Italianist. As of 2003, she is a Professor of Italian at Sacramento State University.

Writing

Barbara Carle has published several books of poetry in the U.S. and Italy. Most of her books are bilingual.
She also translated books of poetry by contemporary Italian poets, such as, , Alfredo di Palchi, and many others. She authored numerous articles on Italian and French poetry, and prefaced various volumes of translation.
Her work appeared in various European anthologies.

Biography

Born to American and French parents in Peshawar, Pakistan, she spent most her childhood and adolescence abroad as she grew up in a diplomatic family.
She obtained a doctorate in Italian Literature with specializations in French and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, New York City in 1988. Her dissertation was on Giuseppe Ungaretti and Paul Valéry.

Creative works

Sulle orme di Circe Incontri a Formia , May 2016.
Tangible Remains/Toccare quello che resta , May 2009.
New Life Nuova vita, Gradiva Publications, SUNY at Stony Brook, New York, May 2006. This book was selected in the Recommended Reading section in Chelsea 82/83 2007 : 292-293.
Don’t Waste My Beauty/ Non guastare la mia bellezza, Caramanica, July 2006,, pp. 104..

Sample Poem (from: ''Don’t Waste My Beauty/ Non guastare la mia bellezza'', 78-79)

The Rag
The rag that wears its dirt so plainly is
for you. Such dull demeanor speaks the tongue
of filthy truth. The coffee stains, the rank
smell tells you something permanent occurred.
The acts and words you can’t undo don’t vanish
but they grow old, get darker, start to rot.
Right now just see and feel those foul clichés’
unpleasant stench. The cloth is worn, has lost
its shape, has been abused. But don’t reject
the crusted blood and dust and lead that hang
a weary head because they can’t depart.
Just let them stay awhile beneath the rain,
then wring some freshness from the old dish towel.
Lo straccio
Lo straccio che porta con tanta evidenza
il suo sporco è per te. Un così opaco
comportamento parla la lingua immonda
della verità. Le macchie di caffè, l’odore
stantio dicono che qualcosa
di indelebile è avvenuto.
I gesti e le parole che non puoi
disfare non svaniscono, ma diventano
vecchi anneriscono iniziano a marcire.
Ora tu puoi vedere e sentire questi
cliché sudici, il loro tanfo
disgustoso. Il panno ormai logoro
ha perso la sua forma, è rovinato.
Ma non respingere
le croste di sangue e polvere
e piombo che restano lì
a capo chino perché non sanno andar via.
Lascialo un po’ sotto la pioggia, torci
poi freschezza dal vecchio canovaccio.

Art books

', with original etchings by André Beuchat, Atelier Alma Charta, Parma, Italia, 2019.
', with one original etching by the author and five new poems in French, Italian, and English. Cover etching and book fabrication by Luciano Ragozzino, Il ragazzo innocuo Press, Milan, November, 2018.
Chi può dirtelo amore Tutto il segno Can anyone find words my love to express the sign, by Marco Vitale and B. Carle, with an original etching by , L’Atelier ALMA CHARTA, Toccalmatto, Italy, February, 2018.

Short Selection of Poems published in Journals and Anthologies

“L'ultimo nume verde”, ”Le colonne tortilli di San Matteo”, edited by Flavia Pankiewicz, Luoghi Interiori, Città di Castello, 2020.
“Il mare bianco, The White Sea” in Maremare, Antologia Poetica Mediterranea, Anthology of Mediterranean Poets, Ed. by Lino Angiuli, Maria Rosaria Cesareo, Milica Marinkovic’, Adda Editore, June, 2017, pp. 116–117.
“Gli spazzini di Roma” in Novecento non più – Verso il realismo terminale, Anthology of poetry, ed. by Salvatore Contessini and Diana Battaggia, with Introduction by Guido Oldani, La Vita Felice, Milano, November 2016, p. 81.
“Lorenzo Lotto: L’annunciata di Recanati,” “Cortilofilia 3” in “Sulla diaspora della poesia italiana,” Poesia 310, December, 2015, International Monthly Magazine of Poetry, Milano, Italy: 55-56.
“The Pharos of Dover/ Il faro di Dover” in Luoghi d’Europa Antologia poetica internazionale, ed. by Lino Angiuli, Diana Battaggia, La Vita Felice, 2015: 58-63.
“I. Bici II. Vélo Love” in Parole in Bicicletta, Bicicletterario 2015, Caramanica, Italy, 2015: 12-13.
“Voices From the Northerner 1860/ Voci dalla Northerner 1860,” Narrative Poem in English and in Italian with an introduction, Journal of Italian Translation, Vol. IX, Numbers 1 & 2, Spring and Fall, 2014: 152-171
“Dialogue at the Cestian Field in Rome/ Dialogo al campo Cestio di Roma,” Italian Poetry Review, 2013, VIII : 132-137.
“The Grains of Sand,” Chelsea 72 :125, “Your Shell Which Wakes,” Chelsea 72: 126 “Downpour Over the Forest,” Chelsea 72: 127 “During My Bengali Adolescence,” Chelsea 72: 128 “Love Keeps Disquieting Me,” Chelsea 72: 129, “Unmake the Silence,” Chelsea 72:130, “They Breathe, They Listen,” Chelsea 72:131
“Pencil,” Connecticut River Review, Vol. 12/1 : 13.

Interviews with Carle on her creative works

Erinda Islami intervista Barbara Carle, Insula europea, September, 2017
Video Interview by Federica Velonà, Rai Letteratura, June, 2017
Interview by Marco Vitale with Barbara Carle on Sulle orme di Circe on Insula europea Website

Anthologies and Translations with Critical Introductions

Emblems of Sleep and Other Poems, by Marco Vitale, Gradiva Publications, 2020.
Tra il cielo e la terra/ Between Heaven and Earth: Poesie in cinese classico, inglese e italiano/ Poems in the Classical Chinese, English and Italian, Trilingual Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry, La Vita Felice, Milano, June 2017, pp. 220. Second revised edition, June 2019
November, by Domenico Cipriano with critical introduction, Gradiva Publications, Stony Brook, New York, 2015.
Garden of Delights, Selected Poems by Gianfranco Palmery, with a critical introduction, Gradiva Publications, SUNY at Stony Brook, New York, May 2010.
Altre contingenze Other Contingencies: Poetry Anthology by Rodolfo Di Biasio, translation with a critical postface, Gradiva Publications, New York/ , May 2002, pp. 300.
Patmos by Rodolfo Di Biasio. Editor of bilingual Italian/English volume, translation with critical introduction, Gradiva Publications, May 1998.

Translation of poetry books

Per una gentile compagna di viaggio, Dodici omaggi a Nancy Watkins tradotti da Barbara Carle, May 2017, Fàmmera Edizioni, pp. 44.
Liturgia familiare Family Liturgy, translation of a book of poetry by Tommaso Lisi, Edizioni Il Labirinto, Rome, May, 2015, pp 76.
''Laudes creaturarum, translation in English, Sol Invictus Press, Special Edition, Drawings by Stefan C. Arteni, Design by Myriam S.P. De Arteni, New York, 1992.

Translation of poetry into English and French

Bambina mattina by Domenico Adriano, Co-translation of poetry into English and French, , August 2013, pp. 82.
Patmos by Rodolfo Di Biasio, a new edition with revised co-translation into English and French, Ghenomena Editions, August 2013, pp. 82.

Translation of poetry into Italian

B. Carle regularly contributes to Journal of Italian Translation with translations from English into Italian. She has translated poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Greg Delaney, T.S. Eliot, Rachel Hadas, and Marianne Moore into Italian. She has also contributed many translations of contemporary and modern Italian poets into English, several translated into English for the first time, such as Lucio Zinna and Marco Vitale. See http://userhome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bonaffini/jit/

A short selection of Critical Articles on Poetry and Translation

“Il ritorno e la ripresa nell’opera di Rodolfo di Biasio” in I poeti del centro Italia, Volume primo, ed. by Bonifacio Vincenzi, Francavilla Marittima, Macabor Editore, January, 2019: 33-36.
“Under Mario Luzi’s Poetic Spell,” Introductory essay to Luigi Bonaffini's translation of Under Human Species by Mario Luzi, Legas, New York, 2018: 7-19.
“Su Garden of Delights: Introduzione e Postfazione,” Gradiva, International Journal of Italian Poetry, Number 45, Spring 2014: 48-53.
“Dalle zolle perdute alla finestra: l’identità letteraria dei confini in Lina Galli e Graziana Pentich” in Atti del Convegno su L’esodo giuliano dalmata nella letteratura, Trieste, 28 febbraio-1 marzo, 2013 Fabrizio Serra Editore, Pisa, Roma, 2014: 386-393.
“Viaggio attraverso le rime di Alfonso Gatto: i sonetti,” in a book of essays titled Letteratura e oltre: Studi in onore di Giorgio Baroni, Fabrizio Serra Editore, Pisa, 2012: 68-72.
“The Lexicon of Costellazione anonima: A Paradigmatic Poem” in La potenza della poesia: Alfredo de Palchi, ed. by Roberto Bertoldo Edizioni Dell’Orso, 2008: 51-57.
“Bolaffio e Saba, La consonanza artistica,” in Rivista di letteratura italiana, XXVI, 2-3, 2008: 61-69. This article was quoted two times by Daniele D’Anza, Fondazione CRTrieste, in his book Vittorio Bolaffio, December 2010: 72 and 277.
“Poiein and Pictura in Alfonso Gatto’s Rime di viaggio per la terra dipinta”, Italica, The Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Italian, Vols. 83-84, Fall/Winter 2006-2007: 489-504.
“The American Editions of Alfredo De Palchi’s Poetry: “The Scorpion’s Dark Dance, Sessions With My Analyst, Anonymous Constellations, Addictive Avversions,” Gradiva, 30, Fall 2006: 12-28.
Critical introductions to the poetry of Antonella Anedda and Gianfranco Palmery in Tre generazioni di poeti italiani. Un’antologia del secondo ‘900 a cura di Francesco De Nicola e Giuliano Manacorda, Caramanica Editore, December 2006: 23-25, 383-395.
On Translating: “From Antoine Berman to Antonia Pozzi”, Binding the Lands Present Day Poets Present Day Poetry, Proceedings of the Third Annual Symposium of IPSA New York, November 11–13, 1999. Ed. by Alessandro Carrera and Alessandro Vettori, The New Jersey Institute of Italian and Italian American Heritage Studies, Edizioni Cadmo, 2004: 231-236..

Reviews of Barbara Carle's works

On ''Sulle orme di Circe''

Franco Borrelli : Magico Mare Nostrum, America Oggi 7, Weekly Magazine for America Oggi, 8 January 2017.
Marta Lentini in Incroci, XVII, no. 34, luglio-dicembre, 2016: 146-146.
Marco Vitale, Sulle orme di Circe, Poesia, Anno XXXI, 337, Maggio/May, 2018: : 78-79.
Interview by Marco Vitale with Barbara Carle on Sulle orme di Circe on Insula europea Website :https://web.archive.org/web/20130124190353/http://www.insulaeuropea.eu/

On ''Tangible Remains/ Toccare quello che resta''

Benassi, Luca, noidonne, Toccare quello che resta Essenzialità di forme come accensione e incandescenza, September, 2011.
Robert Bonazzi in World Literature Today, vol. 84, no. 2, March–April 2010: 721-722.
Franco Borrelli in Oggi 7, Magazine domenicale di America Oggi, 20 settembre 2009, La grandezza del piccolo. This review may also be accessed online through America Oggi’s webpage at: http://www.oggi7.info/archive
Gina Cafaro in Incroci, luglio dicembre 2009, no. 20: 179.
Francesco Dalessandro in Pagine, agosto-novembre 2009: 46-47 : "Immaginiamo un mondo distrutto, deflagrato; immaginiamo un superstite che s'aggiri, tra le rovine, tra gli oggetti sparsi intorno a sé; immaginiamo che si rivolga a quegli oggetti per ricostruire una memoria possibile della propria vita perduta, e si muova tra di essi affidandosi al tatto, toccandoli, palpandoli, sentendone spigoli o curve, asperità o levigatezza di superfici, la forma intera per ritrovarne memoria in se stesso, alleviando con ciò la propria solitudine. "Anche il tatto ha memoria", dice un verso di Keats. E l'aura che spira in questo libro - tema: gli oggetti "reliquie sopravvissute ai vari crolli delle civiltà". Autrice ne è Barbara Carle, poetessa e traduttrice americana, che da noi si era già messa in luce con un altro libro, Non guastare la mia bellezza, pubblicato da Caramanica nel 2006, dopo che nel 2000, aveva vinto il Premio Frascati, 'sezione Italo Alighiero Chiusano'."
Michael Palma in Journal of Italian Translation, 2009, vol. IV, no. 2: 267-271, reprinted in Faithful in My Fashion, Xenos Books/Chelsea, 10/3/2016 :

"As befits a book of objects, Tangible Remains is itself a pleasing object, handsomely printed and designed. Though published in Italy, it is easily available via Internet. Unusual in inspirable and satisfying in execution, it should be read slowly and not all at once, just as you would not tear through a museum giving only the merest glance to each piece on display. And while these pages keep delighting your mind and your ear, you should also keep an eye out for what this always interesting writer will do next".
Simone Pangia in La Provincia , May 24, 2010, Toccare quello che resta di Barbara Carle pubblicate le poesie, in Rubrica Libri.
Gregory Pell, Tangible Remains/Toccare quello che resta , Forum Italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies, September 2009- no. 2, Fall: 535-537 : "This work is equally idiosyncratic and daring."
Giancarlo Pontiggia in Testo, no. 59 anno XXXI gennaio-giugno 2010: 162-163.
Renzo Ricchi in Nuova antologia, May 2010: 367-369.
Rossella Tempesta, Fare Poesia, Rivista di Poesia e Arte Sociale, N. 5 Settembre 2011, p. 127.
Roberto Tortora in TerPress 19 ottobre, 2009. Online article may be accessed at this Blog:
La poesia di Barbara Carle. Natura morta in terza persona
Lucio Zinna in Arenaria, Collana di ragguagli di letteratura moderna e contemporarnea, autunno, tre, 2009: 95-96.

On ''Don't Waste my Beauty/ Non guastare la mia bellezza''

Luigi Fontanella, Gradiva, 31-31, Spring-Fall 2007: 199. On Don't Waste My Beauty/ Non guastare la mia bellezza.
Tiziana Migliaccio in Dall’alto del Gianicolo vedo i castelli romani Poeti a Frascati 1959-2006, Crocetti Editore 2007: 56-57, 171-172. She wrote : "La poesia della Carle è vetro impastato con carne e sogni, "la gioia della mia polpa/matura mentre aspetto/ che il tuo morso mieta la mia fertilità"; è un luogo custodito da risorte divinità: Dioniso, le Parche". "La sezione "Italo Alighiero Chiusano: dentro il cuore del Premio Frascati" in Dall'alto del Gianicolo vedo i castelli romani, Poeti a Frascati 1959-2006, Crocetti Editore, 2007.

On ''New Life/ Nuova Vita''

Gregory Pell, Journal of Italian Translation, Vol. 1, no. 2, 2006: 310-314

On both ''Don't Waste my Beauty/ Non guastare la mia bellezza'' and ''Tangible Remains/ Toccare quello che resta''

Giovanni Occhipinti, Barbara Carle: La poesia dell’amore e dell’oggetto in Trasmigrazioni, anno II, n. 2 luglio 2009 2010, Ragusa, Italy: 92.
Svetlana Tsiberman in Sac State Magazine, Fall 2009.

On B. Carle's translation (with introductory essay) of Gianfranco Palmery's ''Garden of Delights''

Alberto Toni in Avanti, 14 October 2010, Arcipelago Libri: 6.

On Anthology of Chinese Poetry ''Tra il cielo/ Between heaven and Earth''

Thalia Pandiri and Sujane Wu, Metamorphoses, The Journal of the five college faculty seminar on literary translation, Amherst/Northampton, Massachusetts, Vol. 26, Issues 1-2, Spring/Fall 2018: 228-233.
Rob Vollmar, World Literature Today, Nota Bene, Vol. 91, November, 2017.