"I had just gotten away from it all, by which I mean all those ordinary, boring things like skyscrapers, cigar-smoking industrialists, linoleum, plastics, television, westerns and marihuana. I had either seen or heard about them. Whether they are good or bad is beside the point..."A nameless graphic designer is haunted by the concentration camp in which he was once interned. Obsessed with his past, as well as Italy's present 'economic miracle' he retreats to a rural villa where he decorates the rooms with "arrows, signs, advertisements"; invents a new, purposefully incomprehensible typeface; and attempts to devise a marketing campaign for stones. Upon finally returning to Milan life becomes even more unbalanced. He loses his job and acquires a mistress whom he soon confuses both with his wife and the memory of the young, Czech woman he abandoned at the end of the war...Known primarily as a screenwriter for Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Andrei Tarkovsky among many others, Tonino Guerra also wrote poetry and fiction. Reissued to mark the centenary of Guerra's birth, and with a new introduction by acclaimed cultural critic Michael Bracewell, Equilibrium remains a relevant, powerful, and intensely visual account of a truly (post-)modern man.

Renowned for his collaborations with Tarkovsky, Fellini, and Antonioni, poet and screenwriter Tonino Guerra sets his story of two aging brothers in a surreal landscape woven from memories of a rural way of life on the wane. Drawing on dialect from the Emilia-Romagna region and images from his childhood, Guerra paints a world of sacred bridges and weird locals, odd weather and ghostly animals, lonely hens and glasses brimming with rainwater. Guerra's poetry went hand-in-hand with his screenwriting and, in his later career, the two began to fuse, reaching an apotheosis in his collaboration with Andrei Tarkovsky on the film Nostalghia. During production, the poet and director travelled throughout Italy, discussing art, literature, and cinema. These two great artists formed a deep intellectual and creative connection, a bond which mirrors that of the brothers in The Honey. Originally published in 1982, it is only the second of Guerra's poetic works to appear in English translation.

"Då slutade han med oväsendet hans händer åstadkom och först då hördes en sparv som sjöng långt därnere. Han frågade mig: Varför är du rädd? Döden är väl inte farlig, den kommer bara en enda gång." Den italienske poeten Tonino Guerra (1920-2012) internationellt känd som filmmanusförfattare för sina många samarbeten med regissörer som Fellini, Antonioni och Tarkovskij skrev större delen av sin lyrik på den genom århundraden muntligt traderade och idag utdöende dialekten romagnolo. Honung är den första av Guerras många diktsamlingar som utkommer på svenska en diktcykel med trettiosex sammanflätade sånger om två gamla bröder i en liten italiensk by, inte alltför olik den by där Guerra själv växte upp. För den svenska språkdräkten står Ida Andersen som även författat ett initierat förord till denna två-språkiga utgåva, som också inkluderar originaltexten på romagnolo.

"I had just gotten away from it all, by which I mean all those ordinary, boring things like skyscrapers, cigar-smoking industrialists, linoleum, plastics, television, westerns and marihuana. I had either seen or heard about them. Whether they are good or bad is beside the point..."A nameless graphic designer is haunted by the concentration camp in which he was once interned. Obsessed with his past, as well as Italy's present 'economic miracle' he retreats to a rural villa where he decorates the rooms with "arrows, signs, advertisements"; invents a new, purposefully incomprehensible typeface; and attempts to devise a marketing campaign for stones. Upon finally returning to Milan life becomes even more unbalanced. He loses his job and acquires a mistress whom he soon confuses both with his wife and the memory of the young, Czech woman he abandoned at the end of the war...Known primarily as a screenwriter for Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Andrei Tarkovsky among many others, Tonino Guerra also wrote poetry and fiction. Reissued to mark the centenary of Guerra's birth, and with a new introduction by acclaimed cultural critic Michael Bracewell, Equilibrium remains a relevant, powerful, and intensely visual account of a truly (post-)modern man.

Renowned for his collaborations with Tarkovsky, Fellini, and Antonioni, poet and screenwriter Tonino Guerra sets his story of two aging brothers in a surreal landscape woven from memories of a rural way of life on the wane. Drawing on dialect from the Emilia-Romagna region and images from his childhood, Guerra paints a world of sacred bridges and weird locals, odd weather and ghostly animals, lonely hens and glasses brimming with rainwater. Guerra's poetry went hand-in-hand with his screenwriting and, in his later career, the two began to fuse, reaching an apotheosis in his collaboration with Andrei Tarkovsky on the film Nostalghia. During production, the poet and director travelled throughout Italy, discussing art, literature, and cinema. These two great artists formed a deep intellectual and creative connection, a bond which mirrors that of the brothers in The Honey. Originally published in 1982, it is only the second of Guerra's poetic works to appear in English translation.

"Då slutade han med oväsendet hans händer åstadkom och först då hördes en sparv som sjöng långt därnere. Han frågade mig: Varför är du rädd? Döden är väl inte farlig, den kommer bara en enda gång." Den italienske poeten Tonino Guerra (1920-2012) internationellt känd som filmmanusförfattare för sina många samarbeten med regissörer som Fellini, Antonioni och Tarkovskij skrev större delen av sin lyrik på den genom århundraden muntligt traderade och idag utdöende dialekten romagnolo. Honung är den första av Guerras många diktsamlingar som utkommer på svenska en diktcykel med trettiosex sammanflätade sånger om två gamla bröder i en liten italiensk by, inte alltför olik den by där Guerra själv växte upp. För den svenska språkdräkten står Ida Andersen som även författat ett initierat förord till denna två-språkiga utgåva, som också inkluderar originaltexten på romagnolo.