Gigi Angeli, a poet in three languages: Logudorese, Gallurese, and Italian

It doesn't happen often that a book, especially a book of poetry, is presented in a theatre, just as it doesn't happen often that this theatre is almost filled.

It happened in Palau, for the presentation of the poetry of Gigi Angeli, who boasts numerous awards and recognitions, both in Sardinia and beyond. The books presented at Montiggia, both published by Thaphros, are titled "Aiti e vadi – Varchi e guadi, poems in Sardinian/Gallurese with Italian translation" and Aidos e bados – Varchi e guadi, poems in Sardinian/Logudorese, with Italian translation.

Raised in Luras speaking Logudorese, Gigi Angeli later moved to Palau, where he learned Gallurese. "These poems are completely different," Angeli says, "born in Gallurese or Logudorese; the difference isn't just linguistic but cultural, stemming from a completely different context. Luras," Gigi Angeli recalls, "is a Logudorese enclave in the heart of Gallura, which maintains its own character and authenticity, with parallels in the Barbagia and Logudorese worlds. For Gallurese, however, it is Corsican. It was once said that older people who spoke Gallurese spoke Corsican. They are therefore completely different ways of life, habits, customs, and cultures, which, however, because they are in close contact, have what we now call: contaminations."

"When I first started writing poetry," Angeli continues, "I did it in Italian, then, as I grew older, poetic expressions began to emerge in Lurese rather than Gallurese, depending on where I was and what inspired me; there was an inner impulse to put it down on paper, in one language rather than another. And the profound culture I have absorbed in both Logudorese and Gallurese contributed greatly to this ." The poems in both languages are both accompanied by a parallel Italian translation, which is not literal but rather poetry itself, in which the poet has successfully captured the atmosphere, metaphors, and nuances of the original text.

Presenting Gigi Angeli's poems on the Montiggia stage were journalist and poet Piero Bardanzellu and poet Paolo Russu . "These poems are broad-ranging and cover a wide range of topics. Gigi experiments with every means to reach the reader's heart and mind, in a comprehensive manner," stated Piero Bardanzellu. Regarding the book of poems in Lurese-Logudorese, he emphasized the fact that they "also include obsolete terms, which no longer exist in the current Lurese dialect. This book is therefore also a linguistic and cultural heritage to be preserved and passed down."

Regarding poetry in Gallurese, the poet Paolo Russu emphasized that this is not "conventional." Indeed, there are "differences due to a certain blending of Logudorese and Gallurese. A great scholar of these two languages, Francesco Mameli, explained that the root of the word is sometimes the same, and then there are the two variants. Gigi Angeli truly has these things within himself. The language needs to grow, and when it does so within the other variants themselves, it is a source of growth for the language and of 'amistai,' friendships between Sardinian peoples of different locations and languages, who reason with each other: and, in this case, it is within the poet himself."