“Montanaru” - Old Casula

Antioco Casula, known under the pseudonym Montanaru, is perhaps the most lyrical and modern, if not the most original, of the poets in the Sardinian language.
He was born in Desulo in 1878. After attending the gymnasium in Cagliari and Lanusei, he abandoned his studies. With the African War, in 1896, he set out under arms and, in the wake of the new experience, composed patriotic hymns and war songs. As a police petty officer, in the tiny station of Tula, a small town in Monteacuto, he composed his first beautiful songs, inspired by the rugged and fascinating island landscape, shepherds and bandits. Abandoned the gun, in 1909 he married and had two children. Family serenity was short-lived: in 1914 his eldest son died and two years later he also lost his young wife, struck by an incurable illness. A convinced supporter of the value of the Sardinian language and the importance of its teaching in schools, he was called to Milan in 1925 to represent Sardinia at the first national congress of Italian dialects. Montanaru did not lack enmity and criticism: in 1928 the humiliation of prison, accused of links with barbarian bandits, orchestrated by fascist hierarchs who badly tolerated his charismatic figure as a non-conformist intellectual and above all committed to the defense of the island and the Sardinian language. Acquitted and freed, his subsequent attitude towards fascism was fluctuating. However, he was able to continue composing verses until his death in 1957.

Update

10/3/2025 - 12:09