The Poetry of Burchiello: Deep-fried Nouns, Hunchbacked Pumpkins, and Other Nonsense
is the first complete English translation of the poetry of Domenico di Giovanni, nicknamed
il Burchiello
(ca. 1404-1449). A highly influential Florentine poet of the fifteenth century, and a barber by trade, Burchiello composed poetry that inspired numerous imitators and influenced writers for centuries afterwards. Ironically, however, he specialized in a nonsensical style that destabilized semantic meaning and that continues to baffle readers. In this bilingual edition of Burchiello’s poetry, Fabian Alfie and Aileen A. Feng attempt to render Burchiello’s non-sensical poetry into readable English while maintaining the experimental spirit of the original.