The Golden Man is a narrative long poem presented in concise descriptive scenes. In short eloquent verse that projects a cheerful refusal of lyricism, Vivian Lamarque presents anecdotic depictions, much like the director uses his film camera. The poet, at times, smoothly pushes realism into imaginary sketches in which information is stated in a plain language with a minimal use of adjectives. Never does the narrator comment on what is being chronicled. This absence of moral judgement is the main attribute of Lamarque’s poetry. The poet charges her representations with colloquial reverence minus easy magician’s tricks, minus stylistic mannerism. The plot unravels in the same manner in which a story is recalled to friends across a table at dinner. Lamarque politely offers the reader her friendship and, at the end of every account, we can imagine her straightening up at her seat, murmuring, “Yes, this is the story I have to tell.” Vivian Lamarque’s poems have been reverently translated by Pasquale Verdicchio, who, we can imagine fondly tightening his fingers around Vivian Lamaruqe’s hand, promising her: “My translation will be as intimate as your original is generous.”

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Pasquale Verdicchio teaches literature and film in the department of literature at the University of California-San Diego. As a poet, translator, and essayist, he has published translations of Pasolini, Merini, Caproni, Porta, and Gramsci. He is the author of Devils In Paradise: Writings on Post-Emigrant Cultures and the poetry collection The House Is Past, Passenger: Selected Poems (Porta, Antonio and Pasquale Verdicchio, 2000) and The Wall of the Earth(Caproni, Giorgio and Pasquale Verdicchio, 1992).

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