Eugenio Montale, "The Poor Nestorian at a Loss"

The Italian poet Eugenio Montale experienced a lifelong search for, and struggle with, the Divine—the latter oxymorically manifesting/hiding itself mainly as a “Deus Absconditus”—or embodied in angelic female figures. The poet’s troubled spiritual quest is mirrored in his whole corpus of poetry (1925-1977 ca.) from the initial skeptical expectation of unattainable miracles to the final, disillusioned, bitter irony and biting parody of belief/s, dogmas, theological concepts, metaphors, images, and texts. Montale’s painful and anguished search for a historical and transcendental meaning of Life, Suffering, Love, and Sacrifice most compellingly manifests itself in the central and most dramatic phase of his poetry (“La Bufera e altro”). In the poem ‘Iride’ (1943/44) he emblematically defines himself a “povero Nestoriano smarrito” (a poor Nestorian at a loss.) This definition—more poetical and existential than theological—mirrors Montale’ spiritual eclecticism (which also shows traces of Gnosticism, Manichaeism, nihilism and Stoicism) and heralds a sincere, quasi-mystical acceptance of the mystery and silence of the Absolute.