L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE F ernanda Pivano, the unforgettable Nanda, passed away 10 years ago on August 18, 2009. I still miss her expertise, her advice and wis- dom, and her smile. I even miss the flower doodle she drew by her name every time she signed a book. An ethnic ring graced her fingers. She was 92 when she flew away like a bird soaring into the sky. Nanda was the Americanist par excellence, the talented trans- lator, writer and journalist who was largely responsible for shap- ing the postwar Italian concep- tion of American literature. I was a teenager in high school when I first met her at San Carpoforo, a deconsecrated Milanese church in the Brera dis- trict that was hosting a gathering of poets and writers entitled Guerra alla Guerra. Allen Gins- berg, Peter Orlovsky and Lawrence Ferlinghetti were there to defend freedom of the mind against the threat of war on the planet. I began to visit Nanda at her flat at via Senato and was soon struck, as many others have been, by her depth and lightness, her frankness and clarity. She was clear in her thoughts and discernments and certain in her encouragement. She was ironic and looked at the world gracefully, from a different per- spective, with fresh methods of cognition and verification. She experienced American literature and life. Friend of American writers, Nanda was not an acade- mic even though she earned a double degree in literature and philosophy and wrote more than 40 essays on American literature and culture, not to mention her immense work as a translator. She was bright and knew when to speak up, and who for. I discovered the fascinating plurality of American literature and culture through her. She introduced me to that intriguing world and had a great role in making me choose a degree course that was right for me: American Studies. She was a modern Egeria: an advisor or a companion to gener- ations of young people.  Nanda loved to be engaged with the youth. She saw love in the eyes of young people, their dreams and enthusiasm. She knew that the youth are our future hope and that injustice so present in the world doesn't have the final word. Nanda taught me to dream freely, and especially to think freely. To take risks, even if it means making mistakes. Ernest Hemingway consid- ered Nanda his "personal" trans- lator. "In reality, I translated only four of his novels but we were really good friends," she said. They knew each other since 1948. She also visited him in Cuba, at Cojimar. Nanda told me that Heming- way was "as fragile as glass and as soft as a meringue pie." One of the last persons Hemingway called on the phone before his extreme act of suicide was Nanda. She certainly believed that his terse minimalist style of writing was revolutionary. "Both in Cortina and Cuba, he gave me incredible creative writ- ing lessons," she said. "He allowed me to sit beside him as he wrote from 5 to 11 am. I saw him throwing away entire pages because they were not clear enough." Nanda used to tell me: 'Cut, cut, cut, cut. Accurate writing means accurate thinking!" In the '50s she befriended the Beat Poets, those visionary sons of William Blake and Walt Whit- man who rebelled against the conventions of mainstream American life and writing. She translated their work, and shared their civil dissent and underground scene. She joined them in their non-violent protest marches. When Ginsberg went to jail in 1965 for a trackside vigil MARIELLA RADAELLI Fernanda Pivano with Allen Ginsberg, Paris, 1961. Photo by Ettore Sottsass, Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, at Fondazione Corriere della Sera Fernanda Pivano with Henry Miller, Milan, 1960. Photo by Ettore Sottsass, Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, at Fondazione Corriere della Sera Continued to page 14 Remembering Nanda Pivano "Lady America" on the 10th anniversary of her death

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