Valeria Serofilli – Poems and biography

Valeria Serofilli is an important exponent of the most recent Italian non-fiction and poetic production (www.ilnarratore.com). A teacher of literature, as a cultural operator she is president of AstrolabioCultura, of the International Astrolabio prize and of the Ussero literary meetings, SMSBiblio and of Palazzo Blu in Pisa. She is the author of thirteen volumes of poetry as well as literary criticism, essays and prose texts. As an essayist he published the historical folkloristic study “I Gigli di Nola” (Rotary Club, Nola–Pomigliano D’Arco, 1993) whose documentation is preserved in the archives of the Ethnomusical Museum of Nola following the twinning between the cities of Pisa and Nola, while her first work of poetry is Acini d’Anima (Pisangrafica, Pisa, 2000) winner of the 2000 Astrolabio Prize then chaired and renewed by the author from the 2004 edition to the present.

His other collections of poetry: Tela di Eràto (Sovera Multimedia, 2002, critical note by Giorgio Bàrberi Squarotti), Fedro revisited (Bastogi, 2004, preface by Dino Carlesi and critical note by Giorgio Bárberi Squarotti), Nel senso del verse (ETS , 2006, with audiobook), I ask for circles (puntoacapo, 2008), In the sense of the verse – New Volume (Leonida Edizioni, 2009, Gaetano Cingari Award), Amalgama in La parole e la cura (puntoacapo Editrice, 2010), I Quaderni dell’Ussero (puntoacapo, 2013), Resoconto e senso (LaRecherche, 2013, anthological e-book), Vestals (Ibiskos Ulivieri, 2015), Taranta d’ink (Oèdipus Edizioni, 2020, preface by Antonio Spagnuolo) and hot off the press The principle of the escort, (Leonida Editrice Reggio Calabria 2022).

She is the author of short stories, which have appeared in various anthologies and collected in Ulisse (LaRecherche, 2013, anthological e-book) and Ulisse (Ibiskos Ulivieri, 2015, paper version). She is a collaborator of magazines and curator of the personal website www.valeriaserofilli.it, member of the Lions Club Pisa Host and Vice President of the National Committee for the 150th anniversary of the birth of Grazia Deledda – WikiPoesia. His published and unpublished texts, translated into English, Arabic, French and Japanese, have been awarded or reported in national competitions including the Lerici Pea and international competitions including the Fiur’lini (the Hague, Holland, of the cultural association Forum) and read and commented on the radio broadcasts of Toscana Classica, Radio Alma of Brussels, in the cultural column La Tela Sonora and Radio Città Futura, in the Carta Vetrata program edited by Gaffi Editore of Rome.

Some of the author’s poetic variations, requested by the Lorenzo Montano Documentation Center on Contemporary Poetry, are deposited at the Civic Library of Verona. Some of his lyrics were chosen for the column edited by Eugenio Lucrezi La Repubblica poetry workshop

You dress and undress yourself in colours

sun giving your rays as a gift and

in a second making yourself moon as well

to be in the meantime night also, as they tell

Fairy tale in which changed

in daytime, she in a bird of prey

an in a wolf he, by night

only one was the moment that clasped

one to the other:

when the sun married the moon and kissed

at midday to blend with her forever in

eclipse!

(Traduzione in inglese di Ivano Mugnaini)

Which spider bit me?

Try the colored ribbon/ love

but I already know its name

and I know the antidote as well:

you are my poison and the counter poison

my dance therapy

Intertwined in a hug we dance

a slow taranta

killing an immortal inexistent spider.

(22 August 2015)

(Traduzione in inglese di Ivano Mugnaini)

By its signification

the non word

asked the Poet

and with the act of asking

it made itself Poetry and meaning.

(Traduzione in inglese di Ivano Mugnaini)

(in skies more serene)

Now that you are more missed

you are not missed

And the memory of you at this hour

Is steeped in light

Even here, amidst the crowd

drunk with life

Shouts cries applause

You keep me company

More present than when

in the morning

You arose tired already and stilled

Your mind, before starting the day

Who knows what your day is like now

May it not be a leaving without a return

A dream without waking

A strange sweetness here in the air

And certainly it is not all that remains

And while the calm water

of the River continues to frame Pisa

I have your embrace in me

abstract but not less warm because of it

Is it you who no longer suffers

dear

Or is it the memory of you

that re-flowers inside me

Without a goodbye?

Now that I know you quiet

at ease on that part of me

That belong to you

I once again become a child,

fresh and agile

To write, “My Father, I love you.”

(Translated Emanuel Di Pasquale)

If you don’t want

to see your roses fade

you have to catch

the perfume that spreads

like a petal in the room,

and you must caress the essence,

forgetting the thorns

and the gloves

even silken gloves

without reflecting

about time, about the dew

of the leaves and stem, the fresh green

and the burning red

of the petals of love

These are my thoughts

as I rest on your chest

like upon a rose

because happiness

after all, is nothing else!

(Translated Ivano Mugnaini)

(Note: There is a Bee | on a pink button: | she drinks and run away… | All in all, happiness | is a small thing. Trilussa)

I would like to see in the film of your eyes

ancient fairy tales flowing

golden curls in the forest

of your disenchantment

Resurrect elves

I would, to guard castles

and dragons for Sunday time assaults

gathering drops to make a pond

and every blade of grass weaving it into a park

lest fairies be weary

while I apologize for the pain I will give you

Fate son, is like this

we are all doomed to be drawn by lot

but you and not I

have given me life.

(Translated Ivano Mugnaini)