The Political Relevance of Dun Karm, the National Poet of Malta: A Stand beyond Partisanship

The role played by Dun Karm, Malta’s national poet, in the gradual reconstruction of Malta’s claim of being a nation, far trascends the strict confines of poetry in particular, and of literature in general. His ability in fusing into one unique whole the Semitic and the Latin components of Maltese identity transcended politics and managed to establish in a relatively short span of time a sound vision of the island as worthy of achieving independence, and eventually of being recognised by all nations as a republic. This account seeks to identify the influence on political parties exerted by Dun Karm through his works and of proposing a vision of Malta which naturally integrated the Semitic and the Latin segments.

This also explains why the stone, in both literature and politics assumes such great importance not only but also in its symbolical sense. For example the semantic field of the verb "bena" (to build) is quite frequently evoked by both writers and politicians. The native tongue of the whole community, Maltese, goes back to the Arabic period . It is the only national language in Europe which belongs to the Semitic family, and is written in the Latin script. Maltese is formally recognised as the sole national language of Malta, whereas Maltese and English are both official languages (Constitution of the Republic of Malta, Chapter I, 5, (1), (2)).
Set against this background, the contribution of a major poet like Dun Karm can be better understood as being an equally political and artistic cornerstone of life on the island; the underlying motive is driven by need to construct political action built on an awareness that is cultural, mainly historical. This accounts for the fact the past is constantly being cited as the benchmark for any eventual renewal.
Dun Karm interpreted contemporary Malta through the apparently imaginative revival of long gone historical phases, mainly the shipwreck of St. Paul in 60 A.D., the presence of the Order of Saint John , and the uprising of the Maltese against the French (1798-1800). It is not paradoxical at all that in times of political turmoil this tiny British colony was already discussing nationhood. Any eminent author could then still at the same time favour the Italian tradition whilst publicly professes his respect for the British Empire. One could also at the same time discover the Maltese language as the most efficient way of lifting the national spirit by seeking greater sovereignty.
The gradual recognition of the Maltese language by the authorities from 1934 onwards was a political landmark rather than a literary success. By the early twenties of the last century Dun Karm had already acquired national recognition. Although he firmly resented involving himself in politics he did get somewhat embroiled in the political debate of the day when he decided to start writing also in Maltese (a step vehemently resented by the pro-Italian segment of the Maltese intelligentia). He also backed certain political developments. In a text held at the Archives and Rare Books Section of the University of Malta (216a/v/2), he recalls his direct involvement in the organisation of the new national day festivity. The 1921 general elections had secured a victory for the Unione Politica Maltese led by Joseph Howard  Francesco Buhagiar too showed similar admiration and confidence in the poet (Friggieri, 2014).

A Symbol of National Identity
Which party did Dun Karm side with in the early twenties of the twentieth century? Was he pro-British or Pro-Italian? What did he mean in the thirties when he said that he loved both Italy (for its artistic prominence) and Britain (for its democratic tradition), but not so much as he loved Malta, his "only mother"?
Dun Karm Psaila was soon to start being universally known simply as Dun Karm, which was how he signed his works. Dun Karm remains one of the few non-political personalities who succeeded in malding the nation's way of thinking. It happened to a great extent after his death, as one generation after the other held high their respect for his remarkable and convincing vision of the country's future.
Several politicians adopted a phraseology which is unmistakably his. Professor A. J. Arberry of Cambridge University recalls his impressions of Dun Karm after visiting him in November 1957: "It seemed to me then, at a time when I had read only a few of his Maltese poems, that this was a poet of more than local importance; his art and his message must reach the world, to which they truly belonged... As I read more and more of his writings, and penetrated deeper and deeper into his spirit, I became increasingly convinced of his greatness" (Arberry, 1961, p. 7). Adami's insistence on the idea of "aħwa Maltin" (Maltese brothers/sisters) and "flimkien" (together), and of Joseph Muscat's choice of the key-phrase "Malta tagħna lkoll" (Malta belongs to all of us). Even the revival of the word "ġens" (derived from Arabic: "gans") is owed to the poet which he chooses in preference of the word "razza" (race), "nazzjon" (nation) and "poplu" (people), possibly considered by him too prosaic, colloquial and sectarian to imply that the sacrality of the concept of nationhood is clearly understood to be a nation's further stage of maturity. Such a pure style adds to the conviction that even Semitic Maltese could convey the right message with the elegance of ,say, Italian. In the introduction to his own translation of Ugo Foscolo's I sepolcri, he compares the strained but equally functional relationship between Italian and Maltese to a human couple of uneven social status (Friggieri, 1986, pp. 255-256).

The Political Dimension
There is little related to Malta which is not immediately political and partisan. All public utterances, in both Maltese and English, are politically loaded, and evoke colours in terms of their partisan connotation. They all imply allegiance, a sense of belonging to a party. That involves half of the whole community on each side since duality, or at least its perception, explains one characteristic of being This approach to life is structurally reflected in the language, where twoness is frequently the only form through which plurality is expressed. It can all be summed up in such a phrase: there is the Self and there is the Other. Dun Karm's long narrative poem, Il-Jien u lil hinn Minnu, is an allegorical exposition of the belief life is meant to be transcended, rather than lived. The title of the poem is normally translated as "The I and beyond It", meaning that Reality should lead to the discovery of Truth, or in Platonic terms, that the world of Objects implies the world of Ideas (Friggieri, 1988, pp. 1-16).
An empirical, historical interpretation is also plausible: it is simply a hypothetically "genetic" condition due to the fact that people are born within one of the two major parties, a condition preceding personal decisions. Hence the poet's constant insistence on the need of national unity ("għaqda", unity, "lkoll", all, "flimkien", together, are some of the more frequently chosen key-words) emanates from a concern which is equally moral and political. In Lill-Bandiera Maltija (To the Maltese Flag) he deplores the possibility of having blue or green added to the two colours, white and red, which are alone the authentic components of the Maltese flag: Mizzi's claim that Malta was Italian and consequently deserved to be annexed to the peninsula. Seen in such a perspective, the more important works of the war and the post-war periods seem to be consistently intended to strengthen the collective sense of nationhood. Eventually his influence reached leading politicians vigourously nurturing opposite views. In encouraging unanimity at all levels, he made people consider the cause of Malta as a family affair. As evinced in the Innu Malti, the national family is metaphorically conceived as follows: God ("Alla") is the father of the country ("art"), the country is the mother ("omm"), and the citizens are the sons and daughters ("ulied").
The  namely Romance, derived from Italian ("azzar", steal, and "poeżija", poetry). A subtle understatement pervades the whole poem, the central theme of which is complete loyalty towards one's motherland. In spite of spending many years expressing himself exclusively in Italian, he felt himself utterly and completely Maltese throughout this period . The preference of words of Semitic origin to others, derived mainly from the Sicilian and Italian languages, may suggest that he intended also to prove that the traditionally underestimated vernacular was resourceful enough, in both vocabulary and syntactic structures, to express whatever made a language like Italian so prestigious. He admitted that much when translating Ugo Foscolo's I sepolcri (Dun Karm, 1936, pp. 9-11).
The two quatrains (constituting the octave of the Italian sonnet) manifest his "imħabba" (love) towards The question remains whether he was a Nationalist or a Strickland or a Boffa supporter. Very likely he supported all and none (Friggieri, 2011, pp. 14-18 When it comes to politics, it remains difficult to conclude whether he was a Labourite (the Anglo-Maltese connection) or a Nationalist (the pro-Italian choice). His personality has been analysed thoroughly but a plausible conclusion seems elusive. His "ambiguity" makes him what he is, the most representative voice of a tiny ancient nation which till recently still needed to be defined in terms of itself and of its regional character.

A Romantic Interpretation of Nationhood
When the first Parliament of the Maltese colony assembled in 1921, Dun Karm felt the need of expressing his joy as well as of exposing his interpretation of that historical moment. Britain was going through a fundamental change regarding the way in which Imperialism was gradually morphing into what became the Commonwealth (Laferla, 1938). Malta, on the other hand, was steadily moving towards greater autonomy. The greater source of dissent and conflict, however, concerned the question of Maltese ethnic identity, frequently answered in terms of language. The certitude that the derivation of Italian from Latin could provide an analogous answer (namely, the Maltese are Italian) was in direct conflict with the conviction that Maltese is derived from Punic (namely, the Maltese are Phoenician).
Efforts were made to provide Semitic equivalents, even though such efforts defied the logic underpinning linguistic evolution. The real motive, surfacing as literary and academic, was political, indeed an effort to answer the question implied in every political measure of the era: the question was: who am I?
Dun Karm dwelt with the problem in existential terms in Il-Jien u lil hinn Minnu. As his literary personality evolved, he moved from seeking civil self-identification to seeking it in its permanent, existential dimension. He reached his poetic and intellectual maturity in the late Thirties. In the early twenties he was still seeking certitude as a member of a social, ethnic community which had just achieved assembling its own Parliament. division. In 1921 he was already making full use of the rhetorical factors, both thematic and technical, and of the preferential lexical register characterizing the national anthem he was to write about a year later. The substantial questions raised here were eventually answered by history. He was first invited to write the lyrics for a national anthem something then still missing in Malta. Then by 1935 he was unanimously considered as Malta's national poet. This was first announced by Laurent Ropa: "Peut-ȇtre a-t-on été frappé, comme je le fus moi-mȇme, par la beauté vraiment souveraine (ou alors je ne trompe fort) des extraits du "Chant de La Victorie", que je viens de présenter. Leur auteur, Mgr.

The National Anthem
Inevitably Dun Karm is best known as the author of the national anthem. His six lines gained weight and significance as they got older, although they were only composed in 1922. Like other works of art, and mainly like forms of collective expression, they have become more meaningful through their growing connotation and the social, political and economic developments that were to mark the

Dun Karm's Contribution to Maltese Literature
One can perhaps best understand Malta's historical and cultural components through a comparative approach. A short personal note may be fitting here. In the course of collecting Dun Karm's complete poetic works, I had first to embark on the task of establishing his ties with Malta's previous literary-Dun Karm (1978) and Storia della letteratura maltese (1986). In

A Non-Partisan Political Commitment
Although Dun Karm eschewed being identified with any political party, his literary works were often interpreted as a political statement. This he resented in cathegorical terms. He declared he did not side with Fortunato Mizzi when he previously wrote in Italian (namely between 1889 and 1946, and later, since some of the more recent poems are undated), nor did he side with Gerald Strickland when he then started to write in Maltese (from 1912 onwards, and at least up to the post-war period, according to the dated works, and later). He claimed to have been proud never to have embraced any of the political parties.
The strong influence he exerted on the literary activities of his times is perhaps only a part of the spiritual legacy he bequeathed to the nation. When comparing his Italian poems with those in Maltese-one is bound to be impressed by the sheer elegance with which he handles both languages-one can only detect distinctive evolution in terms of his style and attitude. His basic vision of life, both human and national, is one and the same. He embodied propriety across all aspects of life.
He was forever aware of being a priest, of enjoying the esteem of his contemporaries. He was to enjoy that respect by the generations that followed.

The Existential Question
Although Dun Karm is essentially known as a poet who greatly contributed and influenced the path to nationhood, his deeper self is quite different. In the thirties, the culminating period of his whole literary journey, he translated Ugo Foscolo's major work I Sepolcri (L-Oqbra, 1936) and thus risked coming closer to the fundamental dilemma of his world view, more so concerning the problem of happiness in the regard of the problem of suffering. Dun Karm is eminently a poet resembling a voyager in search of significance and justification. He largely relies on his mother for an answer, and eventually concludes that in terms of faith the answer is only acquired through silence, through confident submission. The opening lines of Il-Jien u lil Hinn Minnu, which he started writing in 1936, and published two years later, set the mood for the completion of a self-portrait which soon attains universal significance: Ħsiebi bħal għama: biex isib it-trejqa Itektek bil-għasluġ kull pass li jagħti; Jimxi qajl qajl u qatt ma jaf fejn wasal; Dalma kbira tostorlu l-kif u l-għala, U d-dawl li hu jixtieq qatt ma jiddilu.
My thought is like a blind man: to find the way He taps out with a stick every step he takes, Shuffles slowly, never knowing where he has got.
A dense darkness shrouds from him the how and why, And the light he yearns after never illumines it.

(Translation by A.J. Arberry)
Departing from the discovery of Italian and proceeding with the efficiency of the Maltese language (he was past his fourtieth year when he started experimenting with his native language), Dun Karm finally acknowledged the uniqueness of silence, presumably the only perfect language. Most of his poems are highly emotional, at times argumentative. This betrays the direct impact on him by various writers and philosophers like Dante, Shakespeare, Foscolo, Rosmini. He is most loyal to the philosopher he considers to be the most important of all, Saint Augustine. Perhaps his whole poetic journey is best summed up in Saint Augustine's preferential choice of silence, now finally conceived as the complete surrender of reasoning to the forcefulness of sentiment.
In this respect Dun Karm is a national poet of a much more relevant dimension. He is looking for a patria which is not restricted by the confines of specific time and place. Il-Jien u lil hinn Minnu, a poem in blank verse of more than 500 lines, comes down to a halt as soon as the hypothetical traveller, the unifying factor in an otherwise paradoxical context, discovers that life is meant to be transcended, and that the final stage of any verbal or intellectual utterance is only accessible through silence. It is a level of awareness beyond verbality gained through the discovery of something more eloquent than speech.
This was his culminating point (1938), and his later works, in both Italian and Maltese, are weary expressions of a true poet now tending to listen more to the voice coming from within. He died in 1961, but he had completed his final poetic statements much earlier.