MILLI GRAFFI, 1940-2020

I met the great Milanese poet, translator, editor, and critic Milli Graffi through translation—through the act of (co-)rendering several poems of hers into English for a special issue of Aufgabe devoted to contemporary Italian poetry. Thinking through language with Milli was a ludic and critical adventure whose first chapter I will never forget. Milli took the train from Milan to Rome to meet me for the launch of the issue at La Camera Verde—in her vivacity, in her devotion to poetry, in her utter refutation and disregard for her age, for societal norms (particularly strong in Italy) of who travels to whom and for what. It was the beginning of a treasured friendship.

Translation is a particular form of camaraderie, of love. There are no words for the loss of this kind of friendship, except, maybe, the words of a hundred emails passed back and forth to try carving a line from the bedrock of one language into the seemingly impenetrable stone of another.

With Milli gone the gut-punch meaning of her as-ever language-loosening, language-imploding poem, "Crisson d'amore" (which I translated in keeping with her neologism, as "Love Crisson," for Asymptote), has struck my own heart. Crisis, cri/cry, crysiss, chrysallis, frisson/thrill/shudder/shiver/friction cracking in the heart. Milli will live forever in this fractured heart and brain....

I will be posting in Milli’s honor as focus allows during this painful and tumultuous moment for our country and for the world. I will first share the link to the 2009 Aufgabe issue, which was digitally archived thanks to the efforts of Jacket2 Reissues and of Litmus Press. The entire dossier—125 pages of curatorial and translatorial madness—is there, and my translations of Embargoed Voice appear from pp. 61-69. I have this opportunity from Litmus and Aufgabe, founded by E. Tracy Grinnell, to thank for such a powerful ushering of Milli and the other poets represented into my life.

You can hear Milli’s remarkable voice in her performance of “Salnitro” at PennSound Italiana, where more recordings of Milli are to come: http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Italiana.php

Ciao, Milli. Mi manchi tanto già.