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[The Roof Rat Review.]

Joseph Cary. Three Modern Italian Poets: Saba, Ungaretti, Montale. University Of Chicago Press, 1993 (1969). Montale, as established, is my favorite; next to him Ungaretti seems needlessly vatic, Saba needlessly coy, but I profited from time with all three. Cary is good company. His casual English renderings of the poems, in small type, are often better than prestige poetic translations by others. The opening chapter, about the previous dismal fin-de-siècle scene, gets off zingers but does not seem unfair.

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