on Anthony Barnett and Andrea Zanzotto

The Poetry of Anthony Barnett edited by Michael Grant
ANTHONY BARNETT, Little Stars and Straw Beasts new poems
ANDREA ZANZOTTO, Poems, translated by Anthony Barnett, A [llardyce] B [ook] £45.

It seems somehow appropriate that the cover of Poems by Andrea Zanzotto (as translated by AnthonyBarnett)should bear two brush strokes in Indian ink which are at once a homage to the Italian poet -Barnett calls the resultant ideogram'A to Z of Mountain Paths'-and a kind of wry nod from one end of the alphabet to the other: Barnett's imprint for his productions, as distributed by Allardyce Book [sic] is'A • B'. The translator, as translator, is in his way rewriting Mallarmé's celebrated riposte to Degas (to the effect that poetry is made of words) to indicate that words are made of letters. Yet the roster of critics, many of them personal friends, who have contributed to The Poetry of Anthony Barnett very properly concern them selves with what lies beyond words, as well as within them. Avery necessary response, as Barnett's 'Ice, Fire' (as quoted by the book's editor, Michael Grant) demonstrates:
 

Between -

You and I,

speaks

if it is silent,
he fingers

if it is blinded.

You a real one, I am in a lovedone's arms, .

o the heart-beat.

Here, as elsewhere, Barnett achieves the strange outcome of establishing continuities even as he insists on language blocks split ...