TRILUSSA (Pseudonym of Carlo Alberto Salustri). - Poet, b. in Rome on 25 Oct. 1873, d. there on 21 Dec. 1950, a few weeks after his appointment as senator. He studied at the Roman College of S. Giuseppe at Piazza di Spagna.
His orientation toward political-social satire, springing from the humoristic representation of small episodes and vignettes of everyday news, became more pronounced when T. passed from sonnets to the various meters of the fable, conceived as parody and inversion of the classical fable. Starting, in fact, from subjects already established in tradition, the poet arrived at negative and ironic conclusions, creating a fable entirely his own, in which the beasts, a mere convention, are, in psychology and manner of acting, the mask of men. T.'s satire, often playful and good-natured, is at times sharpened by a biting sarcasm against the hypocrisies, the cunning and the egoism of the contemporary world. In some compositions the poet appears nostalgic and melancholy, and then shows, as in a withdrawal into himself, his true face, in which the mocking smile fades into the furrows of a thoughtful humanity. The dialect he used, and which contributed to his vast popularity, is that of the middle classes.
In his work (Le cose, Milan 1922; I sonetti, ibid. 1922; Le storie, ibid. 1922; Le favole, ibid. 1922; Nove poesie, ibid. 1922; Ommini e bestie, ibid. 1922; Lupi e aguelli, ibid. 1923; La gente, ibid. 1927; Libro n. 9, ibid. 1929; Giove e le bestie, ibid. 1932; Picchiabbò, ibid. 1933; Libro muto, ibid. 1935; Acqua e vino, ibid. 1945) vice escapes explicit moral condemnation: to the poet's indulgent and skeptical spirit it appears almost innate to man's lot. Yet there is no lack of religious touches and aspirations, in adherence to that idea of faith fixed by T. in a writing of his of 7 July 1935: « Fin da bambino per un istinto profondo ed invincibile ho avuto una fede assoluta in una Provvidenza che regna sugli uomini, in una Bontà e Saggezza suprema che governano il mondo; in Dio... In questo argomento la mia fede è rimasta assoluta, intatta e semplice, come quando era ragazzo. E mi ha sempre aiutato e confortato nella vita ».