Poet, novelist, essayist, and translator Cesare Pavese (1908-1950) was a towering figure in twentieth century Italian letters. This selection gathers his final poetic output, the two short series Earth and Death (“La terra e la morte”) and the posthumously published Death Will Come and Will Have Your Eyes (“Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi”), which have long been available together in a popular volume in Italy. These poems reveal him grappling with themes characteristic of much of his work – the unpredictability of human relationships, the psychological after-effects of war, the fragile balance between the need for human companionship and the desire for solitude, and the struggle between the will to live and the lure of letting go – and doing so in terse, unadorned language.

6 x 9, 60 pages, $14.00

Poems by Cesare Pavese copyright 1998 by Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a. Torino. English translations copyright 2009 by Craig Smith and Patrizia de Rachewiltz.