Translated by: Joanna Ganobis

Luigi Nacci “How Light Passes. Poems from 2004–2024”

The poems of Luigi Nacci explore the borderlines – between war and peace, culture and nature, movement and rootedness. They draw both on a reflective, existential mode and on a reportorial, documentary convention, taking the form of micro-scenes and framed moments, akin to poetic travel writing. They reflect a curiosity about the world and about other people – refugees, outsiders – as well as a chronicler’s sense of duty to record local specificity on both a micro scale (Trieste and the Italian border) and a macro one (snapshots from around the world). The perspective of the lyrical subject combines the sharpness of an experienced observer with the subtle glint of someone who approaches reality with empathy rather than ennui. The autobiographical, individual dimension of Nacci’s poetry does not obstruct an understanding of its situational context. On the contrary, the poems give the impression of inviting the reader into an ongoing reflection on contemporary reality – one that dispenses with lofty words or grand declarations, proposing instead a close attention to fragments of everyday events. The author makes use of spoken language, often stripped of punctuation, flowing freely across lines in keeping with the rhythm of the subject’s own journey through the text. At times, however, the language becomes more complex, especially when it itself is placed under scrutiny as a co-protagonist of the unfolding story: any account of the world must always begin with an account of language. Translator Joanna Ganobis succeeds in preserving its individual character. She convincingly conveys the rhythm of the poems – at times unhurried and focused on a chosen detail, at others feverish, dynamic, leaping between successive images. Thanks to these strategies, Nacci’s poetics possess not only persuasive force but also a distinctive voice. Their universal, almost globetrotting character aligns perfectly with ecocritical reflection and geopoetical explorations.

Jakub Kornhauser

The book was co- financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage  within the framework of Culture Promotion Fund.

Luigi Nacci

LUIGI NACCI (b. 1978) was born on the border: in Trieste, in 1978. He is a poet, writer, journalist, teacher and an interpretive nature guide. He has published the following volumes of poetry: Il poema marino di Eszter (2005), poema disumano (2006), Inter nos/SS (2007), Madrigale OdeSSa (2008), odeSS, Decimo quaderno italiano di poesia contemporanea (2010) and Quel che il lampo ha da dirti (2025). In 2006 his treatise on Trieste poetry of the second half of the 20th century, Trieste allo specchio, was published. Many of his texts have won awards and been translated into other languages. He has participated in numerous cultural festivals, both in Italy and abroad, and has organized several, including the Festival della Viandanza. It is wandering that most interests him, both as a person and as a writer, and he loves to walk, especially to the edges of Europe, often off the beaten track. He has described such experiences in numerous press articles and four books of prose: Alzati e cammina (2014), Viandanza (2016), Trieste selvatica (2019) and Non mancherò la strada (2022). In 2021, he edited the autobiography of a Roma woman entitled Spirito libero e sangue caldo with Ediciclo Publishing House, and in 2024 he published the novel I dieci passi dell’addio.

Joanna Ganobis

JOANNA GANOBIS (b. 1988) is a translator from Italian and poet. Having graduated in Italian philology (with a major in translation) from Jagiellonian University, she has worked as a translator and reviewer since 2012, collaborating with Italian literary agencies to promote the works of renowned Italian authors in Poland. She has translated texts by acclaimed Italian writers for children, such as Bimba Landmann, Gabriele Clima, Rossana Bossù and Paola Vitale, Serenella Quarello, and Alessio Alcini, as well as works for adults, including those by Pope Francis, plant neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso, journalist and naturalist Francesca Buoninconti, and Luigi Nacci. As a poet, she has received awards and distinctions in national poetry competitions. Ganobis organises literary events through Strefa Exodus in Chybie, hosting authors from Cieszyn Silesia and across Poland.