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"Puiticchiu" (Little Poet)
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By Giovanni di Napoli
Giovanni Meli was born in Palermo, Sicily on March 6, 1740. He was the son of a goldsmith, Antonio Meli. He attended the Collegio Massimo and was given a traditional Jesuit education, but at age sixteen, dissatisfied with his schooling, he began studying the classics on his own. Persuaded by his mother, Vincenza Torriquos (of Spanish origin), he went on to study medicine at the Accademia degli Studi di Palermo, which later became the University of Palermo (where he would eventually go on and teach chemistry).
Meli was an accomplished physician, but it's for his literary contributions that he is best remembered. Inspired by the masters of Arcadian poetry, he became a poet as well. His early verse was written in "Italian" (i.e. Tuscan), however, it wasn't until he started writing in Sicilian that he matured as a poet, earning the accolades of his peers and the prestigious appellation, "the modern Theocritus."*
La Fata Galanti (The Gallant Fairy) was Meli's first poem in his native tongue. In it, the protagonist is whisked away to Hades by a fairy to consult the ghosts of celebrated poets for guidance on how to become one himself. Meli's favorites, Ariosto, Pindar and Homer, among others, are given positions of distinction. He wrote the poem at age 19 while studying medicine in 1759.
In 1767 he worked as a physician in Cinsi, a small town west of Palermo. His friend and biographer, Agostino Gallo, tells us that sometimes he wouldn't charge his patients for doctor's services.
It was here Meli began his La Buccolica, a collection of sonnets, eclogues and idylls about love and the four seasons, considered by many to be his true masterpiece. He also wrote his L'origini di lu munnu (The Origin of the World) and several elegies, voicing his pessimistic worldview. In Lu chiantu d'Eraclitu (The crying of Heraclitus), Meli laments:
Ah wretched man! In what abyss you fell
by breathing in this atmosphere of life!
How dearly you have paid just to exist!
O worthless mixture of the humblest clay
where barbarous uncertainty's supreme,
spreading its poison over every sore!
And this is man? Ah, stupid nothingness,
absorb my being and my name as well!
Have we sufficient tears, to weep for man?
(Don Chisciotti e Sanciu Panza, Legas, 2002)
After five years in Cinsi, and establishing a reputation for himself as a doctor and a poet, Meli returned to Palermo. It is said that his renown was such that even King Ferdinand III of Sicily (Ferdinand IV of Naples) visited him. The poet's skill in verse made him somewhat of a celebrity among the nobility, particularly with the ladies. More than a few of his sensual and romantic poems were inspired by his court liaisons. L'occhi (The Eyes), for instance, was in honor of the Duchess of Floridia, Lucia Migliaaccio. The poem was partially translated into German by the poet/philospher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who visited Sicily in 1787 as part of the Grand Tour, calling it "Sicilian Song."
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Medal dedicated to Giovanni Meli
(Courtesy of duesicilie.info)
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In addition to his many amorous odes, Meli continued to write sardonic verse, often chastising the wealthy and exalting the poor workers. As a doctor, he interacted with both the rich and poor, giving him rare insight into the economic disparity between social classes. The poet's idealistic view of social justice permeates his works, including the mock-heroic poem, Don Chisciotti e Sanciu Panza, based on Cervantes' archetypal Don Quijote and Sancho. In 1801 he wrote his "Reflections on the Present State of Agriculture and Stock-Breeding in the Kingdom of Sicily," advocating his desire for reform to help Sicily's exploited peasantry.
Meli's final work, Favuli morali (Moral Fables), is a collection of 89 Æsopian style poems illustrating, through allegory and satire, his lack of faith in mankind. According to the introduction by Professor Gaetano Cipolla:
"The 89 fables can be considered as the work in which the poet's life-long search for wisdom finds its maturest expression. In them he celebrated the wisdom of the animals who live according to their natural instincts without harming others gratuitously. Man, on the other hand, is portrayed as corrupted by civilization." (Moral Fables, Legas, 1995)
Some critics (e.g. Attilio Momigliano) have suggested that the Sicilian's fables is the best anthology of its kind in all Italy, others (Giulio Natali) the whole world.
Giovanni Meli died on December 15, 1815. He is regarded as Sicily's greatest vernacular poet.
In commemoration of Meli's birthday, I'm reprinting a couple of short poems to remember him by. (1)
The Donkey, His Master, and the Thieves
"Run quick...the thieves!" said Chiron to his ass,
who was quite burdened with a heavy pack.
The donkey answered him: "These thieves, alas,
will they increase the load upon my back?"
"Oh, no, the load you'll bear will not surpass
the one you're carrying right now." "Well, Jack,
you'd better run, for I care not a whit
which one of you will make me bite the bit."
Moral Fables, translated by Gaetano Cipolla, Legas, 1995, p. 161
The Fly and the Lion
Upon a lion came a fly to rest
and noticed that all animals would stay,
on seeing him, against a corner pressed,
and none of them dared move in any way.
"Since I'm allowed so near, I must be blessed
with special gifts," the fool went on to say.
The fly knew not that he did not exist
in the proud lion's creatures master list
Moral Fables, translated by Gaetano Cipolla, Legas, 1995, p. 162
(1) The poems are reprinted from the poet's Moral Fables a bilingual anthology, edited, introduced and translated by Professor Gaetano Cipolla. Professor Cipolla is the President and Editor of Arba Sicula, an important organization that promotes Sicilian culture around the world. He is also the editor/publisher of the journal Sicula Parra, the author of several books and translator of many works, including Giovanni Meli's Don Chisciotti and Sanciu Panza. These sources proved invaluable to this post.
* Theocritus (c. 310 – c 250 BC), Greco-Sicilian poet, born in Syracuse.
Further reading:
"Giovanni Meli: The Sicilian Muse" by Gaetano Cipolla. The essay was reprinted in Siciliana: Studies on the Sicilian Ethos, Legas, 2005, pages 137-176.
