The work of Albino Pierro is a typical example of the bilingualism that still pervades Italian society. He started writing poetry in Italian but later changed to the dialect of his birthplace, Tursi, in the Basilicata region. While the quality of his poetry in Italian is debatable, the excellence of his dialectal compositions is well recognized. Eminent critics agree that Pierro's use of the language spoken in his native town is neither a purely exterior and colorful addition to the substance of his poetry nor merely a device to embellish his verse with the enticements of the intriguing folklore of southern Italy. On the contrary, it is a strategy that enables Pierro to find and explore his own existential and cultural roots. As critic Gianfranco Folena has remarked, Pierro's dialect is an idioletto, a personal language bearing the imprint of his human and artistic originality. Since he was...