Eugenio Montale

October 12, 1896, Mr.. - September 12, 1981
Italian poet and critic Eugenio Montale was born in Genoa in a large family of Domenico Montale, and Giuseppina (Ricci) Montale. To thirty years Eugenio held every summer at the family villa on the Ligurian Riviera, a picturesque beach which was captured in many verses M.
. When the boy was 14 years old, he fell seriously ill, was unable to go to school and began to read a lot: Italian classics, French literature, books Schopenhauer, Croce and Bergson
. It was assumed that Eugenio, like his father, a salesman will, however, Commerce did not interest the young man. Upon reaching adulthood, M. realized that practitioners will not do it, some time the young man wanted to become an opera singer, but changed his mind and, when he was about twenty years, gave up music lessons.
When Italy entered the First World War (1917), M. went to the front and fought infantry officer in the Austrian front. Two years later he was discharged and returned to Genoa, to engage seriously in the literature: in 1922. participated in the creation of the short-lived literary magazine, . Genoa began to write in journals and newspapers, and his article about the Italian novelist Italo Zvevo (1925) impressed, . and between the two writers started to correspond, . lasted until the death Zvevo (1989).,
. With the advent in 1925
. first poetry collection M. 'Pantsir cuttlefish' ( 'Ossi di seppia') about the poet talking seriously. At this time in Italian poetry was dominated by a magnificent rococo style Gabriele D'Annunzio, in contrast, the M. avoid rhetorical excesses, his poems were distinguished by clarity and specificity, non-traditional imagery. 'I wanted to write revealingly, only the most important. I tried to give unity in diversity - and thus get rid of all superfluous' - poet. Italian critics unanimously considered 'Pantsir cuttlefish' complete original piece of art, liberated from literary conventions.
In Florence, where M. moved in 1927, he finds 'culture, ideas, traditions, humanism'. First, a poet while working in publishing, and then, in 1928, was appointed director of the famous scientific library Gabinetto Vese, where he worked for ten years. Although salary M. received a small place it well suited: the poet had before it a huge library of modern literature. In these years his poems and essays appeared regularly in literary journals.
In the early 30-ies. M. friends with a beautiful young foreigner, who eventually left him in a few years, the poet became acquainted with Drusilla Tanzi, but he married her only in the 50-s. Children they did not have, Drusilla Montale died in 1963
In 1938. M. lost his post of director of libraries for the fact that he refused to join the Nazi Party, and in 1939. released his second collection of poems M. 'Circumstances' ( 'Le occasioni'), . in which there is a negative attitude toward fascism, . although in verse says more about love, . than about politics at the same time, in many poems are felt - often by way of contrast - momentous public events before the Second World War.,
. When Mussolini concentrated in the hands of even greater power, M
. withdrew from public life, this time he studied Western literature, translated Shakespeare, Melville, Eugene O'Neill, mc. Eliot, William Butler Yeats. In the early years of the Second World War, he wrote a passionate lyric poetry, collected in the collection of 'Finisterre' ( 'Finisterre') and published in neutral Switzerland in 1943
After the war, M. moved to Milan, where he works literary editor, critic and journalist wide profile in one of the leading Italian newspaper 'Corriere della Sera' ( 'Corrire della sera'). In the third collection of poetry AM, . 'Storm and the other' ( 'La bufera e altro', . 1956), . which is considered by many critics his best and most representative work, . dominate the same themes, . that in the early books of the poet: link, . parting, . loneliness, . search of his 'I',
. The latest book - 'Satur' ( 'Satura', 1962 ... 1970), 'Blogs 71-th and 72 th' ( 'Diario del '71 e del '72') and 'notebook in four years' (' Quaderno di quattro anni ', 1977) - is a greater confidence and sense of humor than the previous.
M. was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972. 'a significant achievement in poetry, which differs huge penetration and expression of views on life, completely devoid of illusions'. Recognizing the global pessimism M., a member of the Swedish Academy Anders Esterling nevertheless, in his speech said that 'the poet's humility contains a spark of confidence in the continuation of life, overcoming obstacles'. The name of the Nobel lecture M. 'Can there still exist poeziyaN' underlines his pessimistic views. Nevertheless M. argues that, as history shows, art can not be destroyed.
Critics point out that in his poetry M. not capitulate to despair, and continues to search. In 1975. in 'Books ebrod' ( 'Books Abroad') Wallace Kraft wrote that 'the desire M. cope with the alienation impossible, for a man not given to either return to the past, nor to penetrate the meaning of existence '. M. sought not to life, but to artistic truth, says Kraft.
It is argued that M. together with his contemporaries Giuseppe Ungaretti and Salvatore Quasimodo is adjacent to the hermetic school of Italian poetry, which primarily differs deliberate complexity. Many critics also pointed to the similarity of M. with mc. Eliot. Noting that M. was 'not easy' poet, an English novelist and critic Rebecca West came to the conclusion that he was outside the literary trends. 'His poetry is labor, - wrote West - does not offer solutions existential and spiritual problems, which she analyzes the main thing for a poet - the human personality, its importance,' everyday decency ", as M. himself."
M. believed that the duty of the poet - 'to relate, and as accurately as possible, clear and original poems from the inner experience'. Critic Vinio Rossi argues that M. 'returns us to the ancient tradition, when the language and its literary forms were still full of life'.
In the work of M. there is a constant desire to avoid "a beautiful poetry '. Music of his verse is closer to the modern colloquial Italian language, than to the literary. One with his characteristic brevity and restraint M. spoke about his creative method: 'I'm not looking for poetry. I'm waiting for poetry to visit me '.
M. become a life member of the Italian Senate (1967), won several Italian literary prizes, and honorary degrees University of Milan, Rome and Cambridge.
M. died in Milan on Sept. 12, 1981