Italian Contrasti
Poets: Ennio De Santis, Pietro Benedetti
Cinematography: Benjamin Zeitlin
Special Thanks: Alice Rohrwacher
To watch the full documentary, In the Moment: Poetry Duels and Improvisations click here.
Table of Contents
The Tradition
In her essay, The Art of Dueling with Words: Toward a New Understanding of Verbal Duels across the World (Oral Tradition, 24/1 (2009): 61-88), Valentina Pagliai describes the contrasto form and its rhyme scheme and strategy.
“The contrasto… uses a highly complex fixed structure that has remained virtually unchanged for centuries. The poets duel by exchanging octets, stanzas of eight verses in hendecasyllables, in rhyme (following the scheme ABABABCC), on a theme usually proposed by the audience. The octets are “chained,” in that each poet’s first verse must use the same rhyme as the previous poet’s last verse. This strategy assures that the octets will be improvised and cannot be previously prepared. In terms of performance, however, the contrasto is relatively simply managed: the poets stand near each other, dressed as on any other day, and exchange turns….[64]. “In the contrasto, insults may be exchanged in some cases, praises in other cases (they may occur at the same time, in fact), and in yet other cases the poets debate by articulating different opinions without insults or praises”
Strategy
Poets collaborate on an 8-line poem, or compete or debate with alternating 8 line verses, that are “chained” so the each poet’s first verse uses the same rhyme as the other poet’s previous verse.
Music
Contrasto poems are usually sung to a familiar melody
Field Notes
In April 2014, we planned a family trip to Italy, in part to visit friends of our son Ben, but also to document some of the rich poetry duel traditions in Italian that can be found throughout the country. Our son’s friend, Alice Rohrwacher, an Italian filmmaker who was born in Fiesole, in Tuscany had an interest in folk culture. She had worked as a busker and street performer at one time and had spent time in rural marketplaces where she sold the honey that her beekeeper parents produced. She introduced us to Ennio De Santis, a man who was seeking to learn the art of contrasto, and a more experienced poet, Bennedetti Pietro. We met at a restaurant on a volcanic lake, Lago di Bolsena in Lazio, whose proprietor Alice knew. It was a stormy day, which became the subject of some of their poetry. We included this scene in our documentary because it depicts a marvelous person to person conversation elevated by the contrasto form. At the close of the segment, in a wine cave where we travelled with the poets after leaving the restaurant, Bennedetti composes a moving contrasto for Alice, demonstrating a range of emotions often expressed in improvised poetry.
Later Alice arranged for a group of 8 contrasto poets from Lazio, Tuscany, and Rome to meet us in a wine cave. The evening was lively and displayed not only the poets’ skills, but also distinct differences between the poetry duels in each region. The poets introduced themselves in the contrasto form and debated a wide array of topics. Among them was whether it’s better to be old
or young, with the young man improvising verses on the glories of age, and the older poet the glories of youth. Although these scenes were too difficult to film with one camera (never knew which poet would respond next and they were all seated around a long table) so we did not include in our documentary, we have provided the text of the poetry, both in Italian and in English translation that adheres to the form (8 lines and an ABABABCC rhyme scheme) that captures the meaning of the lines rather than a literal translation.
Transcript
Original
Se devo farla la presentazione
Un piccolo poeta sono artenese
Canto da tanto ma non so’ un campione
Cerco sempre di essere cortese
Insieme ai miei amici vo’ benone
E spesso faccio anch’io delle contese
Ho un tinello che faccio i raduni
Sono d’Artena e sono Ezio Bruni
Sperando I versi siano opportuni
Io vengo dalle terre di Amatrice
Dove ci son cigliegi ed anche pruni
E I monti fanno intorno da cornice
Sono Donato e lo ridico alcuni
Ma trapiantai da tempo la radice
Cambiai l’alloggio e la cambiai la mano
vivo e risiedo nel suolo romano
Di origine anch’io dall’Altipiano
città di Alese sopra l’Appennino
poi mio padre come un caso strano
decise di diventare cittadino
e allora a Roma la prese la mano
eppure io mi trovai li da piccolino
ma questa sera in veste di cantante
mi presento son Giampiero Camodante
Ed io che da te non son distante
Devo di’ che son di Prato, e son Fabrizio
Di rime in vita n’ho già fatte tante
Con Caio, con sempronio e anche con Tizio
E con la poesia e vado avante
La poesia è un arte non ‘no sfizio
Vengo da Prato da quel bel paese
E gliè una fortuna che non sia cinese
Translated
a. I’ll introduce myself before we eat
b. The small town of Artena is my home
a. I’m a singer happy to compete
b. Though I may not be well known
a. We have a time when poets meet
b. I wouldn’t want my talent overblown
c. From Artena, I’m Ezio Bruni
c. Quite well known by those who know me
a. I come from the region of Amatrice
b. That was where I came age
a. Where there are cherry and plum trees
b. And a beautiful mountain range
a. My name is Donato – so you see
b. And that will never change
c. But Amatrice was quiet, lazy, slow
c. So to bustling Rome I then did go
a. I come myself from the Italian plateau
b. From the town of Alese on the Apennines
a. But my father, wouldn’t you know
b. Decided the country wasn’t in his genes
a. And thus to Rome he too would go
b. That’s where I recall my childhood scenes
c. But tonight contrasti is my game
c. Giampiero Camodante is my name
a. My home’s not far – but not the same
b. I’m from Prato – I’m Fabrizio
a. Made many a rhyme in search of fame
b. With Giampiero or Ezio
a. In poetry, I seek to reign
b. But poetry is an art – not an easy go
c. In my village, I find ease
c. Cause I’m Italian, not Chinese
