David Tomassini - In memory of Alison Flett (1965 – 2023)

In memory of Alison Flett (1965 – 2023), a translation into Italian of the title poems of her collection Whit Lassyz ur Inty (2014) introduced by the translator David Tomassini

Regrettably I never met Alison Flett. Although in a way I did meet her or rather attempted to match her by translating some of her poems into Italian for a show we were putting on in our village in the Marche on Women’s Day (8 March 2008). And she was in quite remarkable company: William Dunbar, Marina Tsvetaeva, Yelena Drascovich, Emily Dickinson, Virigina Woolf, Erri de Luca…

Alison’s poems often pack such a cruel ironic punch that she makes you laugh and cry at once. Her wonderful images are couched in history and wider cultural issues (e.g., the Union Jack “drane” in Patriotic Pish or the “cross” cancelling out her Scottish school textbook in Saltire). I feel her poems work particularly well in Italian, precisely because she has something to say and says it with a vengeance. She laughs but is angry with our human limits and injustice, whether “cultural” or “natural” and indeed makes us question those categories as in the “loady shite” that we assimilate or rather is stuck into the back of our heads in nature v. nurture – that great philosophical conundrum. And how well she captures the almost empathic response of a woman faced with crude male advances, kindly afraid she might hurt his feelings should she say no in taking offence.

When the silly Barbie film came out with its putative enlightenment to smear more Hollywood shit around, I immediately thought of Alison’s What Lazzyz Ur Inty. Here’s the Italian to defend from the Hollywood factory and its great “merch” (sic) drive.

Quello Che Appassiona Le Ragazzine

splendenti scrigni variopinti
con una chiavetta
fatta di piccoli spirali
che si apre cigolando
per svelare

un carezzevole raso rosa,
pezzi di specchio
e una ballerina di plastica
piccina, piccina
rigida e addobbata
che gira
sul posto
al ritmo
di una dolce musichetta

alle ragazzine
piace…
tutta quella merda

Here is Alison’s original:

Whit lassyz Ur Inty

shiny painted boaxis
wi wee twurly
twiddly keez
thit creek oapin
tay riveel
pink silky satin
an bitsy mirrur
an a toty plastic
ballyreena
rijid an frilly
turnin in surculz
oan thi wun spoat
in timety
a nice
wee
tune

lassyz rilate
tay aw that
shite