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Carmel Mallia: Poe, DOM Communications Ltd., 2014, 127pp.

Carmel Mallia’s anthology of rhythmical verse reflect the poet’s command and exposure to a cultural potpourri of experiences spanning decades during which he studied philosophy, taught the French language and published poetry in English, French, Italian, Maltese and Esperanto.

The latter is a language he introduced in Malta, eventually becoming the president of its association’s local branch.

This most recent publication, entitled Poe, is a collection of four score romantic poems written over the past 15 years in all of these languages. The poems feature personal and social observations on political and environmental issues silver lined with the poet’s traditional beliefs and hopes.

Mallia’s versatile rhymes in almost all languages invite Christians, Buddhists and Muslims to “la speranza guidata dalla fede” in a world braced in l’aumento intenso del terrore.

In translation, it is an overriding theme of hope that reaches its apex in the French poem J’espère (I hope). In similar vein, the poet believes l’Europe chante en l’opéra de l’espoire, echoing the ancient times of Babylon when its people xeddew libset it-tama.

Mallia dabbles in languages with a certain ease, often adopting artistic inspirations from different cultures. With equal ease he expresses himself in various styles of poetry ranging from traditional stanzas and prose poetry to haiku and tanka, where “high up in the sky, harassing the sour air, airplanes fumble”.

The author was awarded several prizes for translating Maltese works, including anthologies of Maltese poets

Zestfully, he comments on “obese guts, queer capitalists and modern young slaves”, which he perceives along the streets of “my country”.

Mallia’s Maltese choice of lyrics is somewhat dominated by lines dedicated to provincial subjects expressing intimate familiarity and traditional values. Not the one about (Fuq) Dgħajsa Mgħobbija bil-Maħrubin mil-Libja, though: the boat carrying immigrants looking for a ġejjieni sielem to whom we should provide as welcome brethren.

Readers of this anthology will also enjoy browsing through 17 poems written in the most successful constructed language in the world, Esperanto, even if the tongue enjoys limited diffusion in Malta.

The author, who was awarded several prizes for translating Maltese works including anthologies of Maltese poets and Frans Sammut’s Il-Ħolma Maltija into Esperanto, pays homage to Ludwik Lazarus Zamenhof on the occasion of the 150th anniversary since the birth of the creator of Esperanto, born in 1859.

Publishing poetry in Malta is definitely not the wisest investment; present day readers seem to have shrunk onto some electronic immediacy planet where pensive meditation is fast ebbing.

With its versatility and topical commentaries, however, Poe might prove to be an exception.

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