Simultaneities and Lyric Chemisms – Poems by Ardengo Soffici
Simultaneities and Lyric Chemisms / Poems by Ardengo Soffici, translated by Olivia Sears / ISBN 9781954218055 / 120-page paperback published in 2022 by World Poetry Books
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“A very important work, rich in fresh beauties.”- Guillaume Apollinaire
Simultaneities & Lyric Chemisms is a vital reconstruction of Italian Futurist poet Ardengo Soffici’s visual poetics, presenting his seminal work for the first time in English in Olivia Sears’s exacting translations.
“Sears’s translation is superb. It is exciting to meet a new writer, so wonderfully introduced to us by Marjorie Perloff’s excellent preface. Brava!” – Mary Ann Caws
“Ardengo Soffici’s Franco-Italian Futurist poetry will leave you shaken and stirred like that first martini of the afternoon. And Olivia Sears’s translation will make you see stars (as Soffici hits you upside the head) as well as heart-breaking wonders in the streets of Paris, Florence, and Rome: ‘Delight electric breath molecules expanding with the air along the geometry of open houses.’” – James Brook
“These are poems from the “modern” world—one now as vanished and remote as the Baroque and Classical realms had been for the Futurists. The excitement over electricity—still novel in its infiltration of urban life—radio, cinema, automobiles and cigarettes—is palpable. With their unruly combinations of display and text fonts, these graphic poems are the quintessence of Futurist chaotic energy. This splendid typo-translation does not just preserve their impact, it revives their verve and vitality.” – Johanna Drucker, ABCs
