CIMA, Annalisa 1941–

PERSONAL: Born January 20, 1941, in Milan, Italy. Education: Attended school in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Geneva, Italy; degree in philosophy.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Valdonega, via Genova 17, 37020 Arbizzano, Verona, Italy.

CAREER: Poet, painter, and critic. Founder, with Cesare Segre, of Fondazione Schlesinger, Milan, Italy, 1978. Exhibitions: Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, Italy, 1965; National Gallery, London, England, 1967.

WRITINGS:

6 quadri, 3 disegni, 1 serigrafia, lavori in corso, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1968.

Eugenio Montale, via Bigli, Milano, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1968.

Allegria di Ungaretti, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1969.

Terzo modo (poems), All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1969, revised by Mary de Rachewiltz and translated by Sizzo de Rachewiltz as Third Way, New Edition (New York, NY), 1977.

La Genesi e altre poesie, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1971.

Incontro Palazzeschi, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1972.

Incontro Montale, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1973.

Immobilità (poems), All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1974.

Sesamon (poems), Guanda (Parma, Italy), 1977.

Ipotesi d'amore (poems), Garzanti (Milan, Italy), 1984, translated by Jonathan Galassi as Hypotheses on Love, Grenfell Press (New York, NY), 1989.

Ezra Pound a Venezia da "Cici" alla salute, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1985.

Quattro tempi, Fondazione Schlesinger (Lugano, Switzerland), 1986.

Aegri somnia/Sognidi malato, Cima (Lugano, Switzerland), 1989.

Quattro canti, Stamperia Valdonega (Verona, Italy), 1993.

Eros e il tempo, Stamperia Valdonega (Verona, Italy), 1993.

Il tempo predatore (poems), illustrated by Eugenio Montale, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1997, new edition, 2001.

Annalisa Cima (poems; in English and Italian), translated by Frederich G. Glomblik and others, Moncalieri (Turin, Italy), 1999.

Hai ripiegato l'ultimo pagina: pensieri per Vanni Scheiwiller, preface by Maria Corti, Interline (Knavery, Italy), 2000.

A Friedrich, Edizioni Pulcinoelefante (Osnago, Italy), 2000.

Un pensiero, Edizioni Pulcinoelefante (Osnago, Italy), 2000.

Frammento da una poesiea a Friedrich, Edizioni Pulcinoelefante (Osnago, Italy), 2000.

Per Maria Corti, Edizioni Pulcinoelefante (Osnago, Italy), 2000.

To Luchino Visconti, Edizioni Pulcinoelefante (Osnago, Italy), 2000.

Il corvo bianco, Edizioni Pulcinoelefante (Osnago, Italy), 2000.

Per Maria Corti, Edizioni Pulcinoelefante (Osnago, Italy), 2000.

L'amicizia, Edizioni Pulcinoelefante (Osnago, Italy), 2000.

Canto della sopravvivenza, Edizioni Pulcinoelefante (Osnago, Italy), 2001.

Siamo, Edizioni Pulcinoelefante (Osnago, Italy), 2001.

Canti della primavera e della sopravvivenza, Stamperia Valdonega (Verona, Italy), 2001.

Gigi Guadagnucci o della metamorfosi, Edizioni di Josef Weiss (Mendrisio, Italy), 2004.

Segno del domani, con uno schizzo di Mario Botta, Edizioni di Josef Weiss (Mendrisio, Italy), 2005.

L'impossibile diviene, Edizioni di Josef Weiss (Mendrisio, Italy), 2005.

EDITOR

Con Marianne Moore, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1968.

G. F. Malipiero a Venezia, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1968.

(With Cesare Segre) Eugenio Montale, profilo di un autore, Rizzoli (Milan, Italy), 1977.

Rivoluzione die fiori, Pegaso (Lugano, Switzerland), 1986.

Eugenio Montale, Diario postumo: prima parte (includes verse originally published in pamphlet form as Poesi inedite di Eugenio Montale), Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 1991, expanded edition published as Diario postumo: 66 poesi e altre, 1997.

OTHER

Also author of introduction for Logogrifi '70, by Ezio Gribaudo, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1970; Di domenica, edited by Murilo Mendes, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro, 1974; and Da gilli, edited by Jorge Guillén, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro (Milan, Italy), 1975. Author of preface to Vittorio Cavicchioni, Magma (Rome, Italy), 1973; Di Terzat, Grillo (Genoa, Italy), 1979; and Egocosmo, by Edoardo Gatti, All'Insegna del Pesce d'Oro, 1980. Contributor of poems to periodicals, including Poetry.

SIDELIGHTS: An Italian poet whose knowledge of philosophy and music often imbues her verses, Annalisa Cima is also a co-founder of the Schlesinger Foundation, which strives to strengthen communications and learning about cultural and scientific information between Italy and the United States. She was entrusted by the late poet Eugenio Montale to publish the poet's works after his death, and she began editing releases of Montale's works in 1969. Cima's concern for maintaining an active dialogue on the arts also has led her to publish a number of books about literature, photography, and other fields, works that often include interviews with the artists.

As a poet, Cima made an early mark on the literary scene with the critically acclaimed collection Terzo modo, which was translated into English as Third Way. This collection expresses the poet's belief in the importance of knowing oneself, and contains poems that explore the theme of being, or essence. With the follow-up poetry book Immobilità Cima examines the problem of the absence of love. As Dictionary of Literary Biography contributor Clare de Cesare Huffman noted, the poet has spent much of her life moving from town to town; thus, there is sometimes a sense of a loss of center in her verses. As Huffman wrote, "There is much 'absence' in Cima's poetry: an absent mother and an absent geographical center." Not only are these themes expressed in Immobilità, but Cima's poems also reveal her discomfort with abstractions and her mistrust of language, which she feels can actually be an obstacle to the search for transcendence.

These notions are further explored in Sesamon, in which Cima seeks to find a "resolution in thoughts that come whole and inseparable from their form, without ever falling into the trap of transient contingency," explained Huffman. With Sesamon, according to Huffman, Cima finally succeeds in overcoming a sense of isolation. In the volume Ipotesi d'amore the poet "has moved into higher poetic spheres," according to Michela Montante in World Literature Today. The influence of other artists, especially musicians such as Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is clearly evident here, and the poet's experience in the arts and philosophy is used to poetic advantage, wrote Montante, who declared that Ipotesi d'amore is clear evidence of Cima's "indisputable artistic talent."

After Montale, who had served as the Schlesinger Foundation's honorary chair, selected Cima to be the caretaker of his yet-unpublished poems, Cima was key in publishing such works as Diario postumo: prima parte and Diario postumo: 66 poesi e altre. Peter Hainsworth, reviewing the former collection in the Times Literary Supplement, suggested that perhaps "the general premise" of the posthumous publication of Montale's poetry is to comment on what "is left of the culture of the past" that "is now fragments and shadows."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 128: Twentieth-Century Italian Poets, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1993.

PERIODICALS

PN Review, January, 1998, Peter Robinson, "Montale and the Muse," pp. 27-29.

Times Literary Supplement, October 4, 1991, Peter Hainsworth, "Montale and After," review of Diario postumo: prima parte, p. 32; October 17, 1997, Peter Hainsworth, "The Uprightness of the Poet," review of Diario postumo: 66 poesi e altre, p. 23.

World Literature Today, winter, 1986, Michela Montante, review of Ipotesi d'amore, p. 90.