Crescenzo Del Monte (Roma, 1868-1935)
La cena de Purimme
from Sonetti giudaico-romaneschi in Israel, Florence 1927, ed. Florence: Giuntina, 2007 Printed book, 19.6 × 14 cm
Rome, Biblioteca del Centro di Cultura Ebraica
Crescenzo Del Monte was an import ant scholar, an expert in the Jewish Romanesco dialect and the author of hundreds of sonnets in this language, which strongly resonate with the influence of Giuseppe Gioachino Belli. The protagonists of such sonnets are the Jews belonging to the universe of the ghetto, also after emancipation. The sonnet reproduced here, dated March 27, 1912, recounts in a mocking tone the abundance of food and beverages at the Purim dinner. In the opening note, the poet recalls that it was customary for the dinner of Purim to begin during the day, before sunset, and end at night, and that one had to “eat twice as much of everything.” The sonnet, in a strictly Judaic-Romanesco style, lists the names and surnames of the diners and mostly revolves around the copious libations of wine, traditionally poured at Purim, when all the participants got drunk. Hardly comprehensible without the author’s notes, the sonnet closes with the phrase “rallègrete macòmme, ch’è Purimme” (rejoice, latrine, it is Purim), which is a reminder of the theme of the “vanity of vanities”. As Del Monte writes in the foreword to the collection of son nets, the text documents “the vernacular spoken in Rome by the Jews.” The sonnet can be found in the 2007 unabridged edition (Sonetti giudaico-romaneschi. Sonetti romaneschi. Prose e versioni, edited by Micaela Procaccia, Marcello Teodonio, Florence: Giuntina, 2007: 152–53). MC
