Giovanni Ghione (1952)

Ghione was born in Savona in 1952, but he lives in Varazze and worked in Genoa as a civil servant for the administration of Liguria. His interests include religious and local history. In his poetry, Ghione gradually detaches himself from Firpo’s influence and alternates narrative tones, as in his first collection Navego incontro a-o sô (1988), with others that are bluntly lyrical. As F. Toso says, “he seems to lean toward the evocative allusiveness of the moment, in which often happy images accumulate, solarly composed in their concluded coherence”. F. Gallea, for his part, in his introduction to Çercando a luxe (2010) points out how “the best results are found in those lyrics where the heart wins over reason and sentiment springs forth and becomes communicative, and in those where intimate and collected scenes and environments are woven”. According to Maurizio Cucchi, however, “Ghione likes to play with verse … he follows the path of the picturesque vernacular. All well and good, although, contrary to what one might think, getting to poetry by these means is even more difficult…”. This last quote confirms for us that Italian critics of “vernacular” poetry always look for the “picturesque”, typical of a reductive and lesser conception, which in Ghione’s case is by far not the most important feature.

L’oa

In his verses Ghione expresses a vivid feeling of the time that passes inexorably, and marks the moments of life, which can be recaptured with memory.

L’oa a contava
i menuti
che tenzeivan a seu vitta

l’umô e l’anima
de quelli che passavan
mettendose derê à l’urtimo
in fia indiaña

Contime

Contime e föe
de l’arbô
se ti veu che tenze
e muage da giornâ

I castelli d’æña
baxæ da-a luña
se perdan inta brixa

A tore de pria
a fa ombra
a-o nòstro cammin

Inti teu euggi
tenti de turchin
regattan i seunni
comme onde.

E mæ man
te soccoran ancon
e inte teu cæze
i mæ cavelli cangian de cô.

Romba de luña

Staneutte a luña
a balla a romba
in sciô mâ.
A-i corpi de l’onda
a-o gusto da sâ.
O ciæo in sce l’ægua
o mescia
’na magica muxica.
Cominsemmo à ballâ
a-o ritmo de lê
a-o scroscî de l’æña
sotta i pê.