Italian poet Emanuela Rizzo: Our anthology of oriental poetry will have many Vietnamese poets

Italian poet Emanuela Rizzo, an art enthusiast whose poems have featured poetry in Italy and some other countries, has recently translated works by several Vietnamese poets and published them on the famous poetry site “Future Poetry” in Italy..

Italian poet Emanuela Rizzo
Italian poet Emanuela Rizzo

She spoke to Thoi Nay (Present Times) publication of Nhan Dan (People’s) Newspaper on her initiative to translate poetry from different countries around the globe.

Q: What made you come up with the idea to translate and read poems worldwide? How many international poets have you translated into Italian and published via your personal facebook fanpage?

A: That initiative arose amid the COVID-19 pandemic. I needed to do something real. Therefore, during the social distancing period, I began to translate international poems and then recorded myself reading foreign poems and posted them via my Facebook fanpage. Later, three other Italian poets, Luca Ariano, Alessio Zanichelli and Rita D'Annunzio joined me in this project. And so, my initiative has attracted many poets from around the world, maybe more than 30. They have translated and read poems aloud in their native languages. I will work with poets Alessio Zanichelli and Luca Ariano to collect further outstanding translated works into an anthology of oriental poetry.

Q: Congratulations on your role as a Cultural Ambassador at the online book festival in Peru. Could you share about your works at the festival as well as your feelings?

A: I have been the Italian Cultural Ambassador for the International Online Book Fair in Peru for several months. Through my friend Claudia Piccinno, also a poet and translator, poet Elisabetta Bagli introduced me to the event’s organisers. I had previously served as the Italian Cultural Ambassador for several activities like that. That work offered opportunities for me to expand my connection with international poets and writers so that I can continue to translate more poems to promote my own initiative as mentioned. I have been much happier because I have always made new friends with passionate emotions without borders and a common love for poetry.

Q: You have translated poems by Vietnamese poets such as Dang Than, Nguyen Dinh Tam, Tran Thu Ha and Vu Trong Thai. You also read aloud Vietnamese poems in Italy. How do you feel about those poems?

A: I have never been to Vietnam and always dream of visiting your country. I am very interested in Vietnamese history and its different cultural nuances. I appreciate the origin and background of your poetry. Vietnamese literature is one of the, richest and most interesting ones of its kind in Southeast Asia.

I have a very close friend, Le Thuy Ai, who is living in Italy. I admire Le Thuy Ai because she is a famous and talented painter. I really like the Vietnamese poems I have translated, because their content exude true love both for nature and the country. That is also a topic that has interested me.

Q: You plan to publish an anthology of Oriental poetry in Italy in the near future. Will the translated poems of Vietnamese authors appear in the collection? When is it expected to be released?

A: There will be certainly Vietnamese poems featured that I have translated in my collection. I am continuing to translate poems by foreign poets, including those from Vietnam, and post them on the site “Future Poetry”.

Thank you very much!

Translated by NDO