100 sonnets that are not sonnets

‘Erbatax-il Vers’ Author: Alfred Grech Publisher: Self-published, Gozo Year: 2016 Extent: 100pp

Noel Grima I do not know why the author felt he had to add a phrase in Greek, written in Greek letters and also in Latin letters, Tessares kai deka stichoi, to the title page which according to Google Translate means “four and ten lyrics” when this is a booklet containing 100 poems. This is not the first time the author gave us collections of his poetic efforts.

This time, there are certain changes: the poems do not have a title but just the date presumably when they were written.

Nor do they refer, as far as I could see, to events in Malta or Gozo, but mostly (and obliquely) to personal relations between the author and presumably a lady friend.

Nor is there any link between what is written and the date of composition.

As the author himself says in his introduction, these 100 poems are written like sonnets but they are not sonnets in the true sense of the word, even though each poem has 14 lines and they are written in the traditional vers tal-hdax (endekasillabu).

The subject matter of most of these poems is the poet’s somewhat troubled relationship with his girl-friend: many express his yearning for a fuller, more constant relationship, at the same time expressing his loneliness when his girl-friend is absent or far away.

At the same time, the author’s command of the Maltese language is unparalled. Like the following taken from 3.1.2012: Jien noqghod mohhok nimla b’hafna hrejjef, Biex niehu minnek kull xhin jien nixtieqek.

Nipperswadik li m’hawnx ohr’isbah minnek, Niehu li rrid u wara nhossni moqli. Inti kastell minn kullimkien imdawwar, U l-armi tieghi jaqtghu bla ma jweggghu, Malajr iccedi; nghidlek l’iprem minnek Ma hawnx fid-dinja, lanqas taht xemx tisreg. The book is also enlivened by works by George Mario Attard.