The collection of Belli sonnets I have (translated) is small compared to the overall production. He wrote about 2200 sonnets. Here is quick overview of the work and man. The poems are quite amusing. I may get to some literary studies at some point. On my first read, they remind me of Baudelaire. Maybe it was the air. Belli seems a good deal rowdier, and cruder in the usual sense. I got interested because of the odd memorial to Belli in Trastavere, right by the Tiber.
Here is how the little book starts:
The Recollection
The day that Camardella faced the gallows,
I got confirmed...still seems like yesterday--
Godfather, me, the fairground games I played,
the treats I got (some knick-knacks and marshmallows).
My father booked a two-horse coach for us,
though first there was the hanging to enjoy.
"That scaffold,, eh?" he said, "the real McCoy!"
and hoicked me up so I could feel the buzz.
The very moment that the hangman thwacked
the prisoner's sorry arse cheeks into space,
Papa struck a blow across my face--
"Take that," he said, "so one day you'll look back
and understand: this fate is destined to
take down a thousand better men than you."
tr. Mike Stocks.
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