Book of the Week – Cuccagna: Italian Senryu selected and translated by Valeria Simonova Cecon

Cuccagna introduces us to a community. This slim collection brings together Italian senryu by several poets, selected and translated by Valeria Simonova Cecon. The title refers to a mythical land of abundance and pleasure, but the poems themselves are grounded in ordinary human life, where comedy, loneliness, family tensions, ageing, grief, and self-awareness coexist in a few carefully chosen words.

Unlike haiku, which traditionally turns toward nature and seasonality, senryu turns its gaze toward human behaviour. The poems in Cuccagna remind us that people remain endlessly capable of being funny, foolish, touching, and contradictory.

The collection opens with a poem by Antonietta Losito:

he invites the thieves
to take her too
mother-in-law (p. 7)

The joke arrives immediately, but what makes the poem memorable is its familiarity. Across cultures and languages, family relationships generate a shared repertoire of frustrations and affection.

A more introspective senryu follows on the next page:

completed
my to-do list —
time left for sadness (p. 8)

Santino Cicala captures something distinctly modern. We often imagine productivity as a defence against unhappiness. Once the tasks are done, however, the self remains waiting.

Elisa Allo offers another moment of existential humour:

old magazines —
the meaning of life
in a crossword (p. 9)

The poem gently mocks our search for answers while acknowledging its persistence. The crossword becomes a miniature version of the larger puzzles we spend our lives trying to solve.

Memory and loss enter the collection through a quieter register:

dad’s study —
that lingering smell
his newspapers (p. 13)

Angiola Inglese understands that grief often survives in sensory details. The father is absent, yet his presence remains suspended in smell, a form of memory that resists disappearance.

One of the strongest poems in the anthology appears near the end:

at the 30th-day Mass
I take a closer look
at her picture (p. 18)

Corrado Aiello captures a moment familiar to anyone who has mourned. Death alters perception. We begin noticing details we overlooked when the person was alive. The photograph becomes both presence and absence.

What makes Cuccagna especially enjoyable is its range. Within a few pages we encounter funerals, public toilets, cemeteries, Pokémon, beggars, mothers-in-law, and first dates. The poets are not seeking profound revelation. Instead, they trust the small absurdities of daily life.

As you read these senryu, consider which poem feels most familiar. Is it the one that makes you laugh, or the one that catches you off guard with recognition? Often the best senryu do both at once.

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You can read the entire collection in the THF Digital Library.

The THF Digital Library can now also be found easily through the carousel on the home page, making it simpler to discover books, journals, and other resources from the archive.

Do you have a full-length or chapbook collection published in 2021 or earlier that you would like featured as a Book of the Week? Contact us for details. Book of the Week selections are made by THF Digital Librarian Vidya Premkumar and are featured with permission.