/lit/ - Literature

Underrated authors?

> How can anybody study read and understand Italian haiku, and the cultural side of Fascism, and d'Annunzio, without reading his friend Shimoi? Shimoi was a poet, a translator into Italian, a warrior. He followed d'Annunzio in Fiume and was among the first 50 soldiers to enter Trieste. This book is a collection of memories of the enterprise, sketches, notes, letters to the Buddhist senator Giuseppe de Lorenzo, and a note autographed by d'Annunzio.

>A volunteer in the Italian army during the First World War, then a volunteer in d'Annunzio's war, Harukichi Shimoi lived almost 25 years in Italy, first in Naples and then in Rome. He spoke a perfect Neapolitan, in fact. Great friend of Mussolini, he made him know well before the alliance with Japan the beauty of certain classical Japanese culture: the pen and the sword, the culture of the samurai. He made haiku known in Italy, he made Dante, d'Annunzio and Mussolini better known in Japan. Tireless admirer of Fascism, which he thought could oppose the spiritual decadence of modern Japan, he was a true mediator of culture. His book should be read to understand a little known aspect of Italian Fascism and its cultural politics; and, above all, the "nippophilia" of Mussolini since the Twentieth.

Unfortunately none of his books have been translated into English.

>>18589392
The Italian War as Seen by a Japanese is a look at the general attitude of the Italian people in WW1. Lots of flag waving and flowers, it gives a series of glimpses into the patriotic fever gripping the Italian people at that time.

Should I keep going? If anyone's interested I can post more exerts from the book.