Michele Bonavero

Michele Bonavero was born in Turin in 1953 and lives in Bussoleno in the Susa Valley. He is the chief editor of Piemontèis Ancheuj, a monthly journal dedicated to Piedmontese culture and literature. Piemontèis Ancheuj is written completely in the vernacular and is currently the most important publishing venue for poets writing in Piedmontese. Bonavero’s own literary output includes plays, prose, and poems. In 2011 he published a collection of proverbs, Proverbi piemontesi, that was expanded and republished in 2015. The palette of his poetry ranges from short and ironic texts to longer, meditative, and musically complex poems.

L’avija (unpublished)

A forsa ‘d zonzoné
tu ël di da fior an fior
a l’é ciapasse l’anfreidor.
Ël dotor l’ha dije ‘d cambié aria,
chila l’ha sernù le fior
ëd plàstica dël simiteri.
L’é varìa,
ma l’é mòrta ‘d fam!

(L’ape «A forza di ronzare / tutto il giorno di fiore in fiore / si è presa il raffreddore. / Il dottore le ha detto di cambiare aria, / lei ha scelto i fiori / di plastica del cimitero. / È guarita, / ma è morta di fame!».)

The Bee

By dint of buzzing
all day long from flower to flower
she caught a cold.
The doctor recommended a change of scenery,
she chose the plastic
flowers at the cemetery.
She recovered,
but starved to death!