DanielMassa

Massa was born in 1937, in Żabbar. He graduated in the Arts at the University of Malta, Education at Exeter University, and obtained his PhD from Edinburgh. He started off his career in the education sector and wrote articles, poems, and novellas specifically for radio broadcast.

His first poems, appearing in Kwartett (1965) were a reflection of the move towards new wave poetry. Throughout his career Massa combined traditional values, personal experiences and the state of affairs in Malta in a reflective and refractive manner, making his poetry modern and relevant. In fact, in many poems he talks about life, values and justice, the right use of power, along with our social and environmental responsibilities.

Important works include the collaboration Kwartett (1965), Xibkatuliss (1989) and Barefoot in the Saltpans (2015). In Kwartett we find the delicately intricate “X’Inħobb” (What I Love), and the gripping “Il-Mewt tas-Sajjied” (Death of a Fisherman), where solitude and pain are pronounced. Perhaps most important is “Dayadhvam” which is a nod to T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland”, as he repeats “Datta.Dayadhvam.Damyata” and includes the verse from the Book of Daniel “Mane Tekel Fares”. Massa places even more emphasis on the senses and environment in Xibkatuliss, especially the Mediterranean sea, the smells and memories it carries on its breeze. He speaks about Mediterranean life and how we are still affected by the myths created by this very sea and these very shores. According to Peter Serracino Inglott these poems are the best of our country, in our time. Barefoot in the Saltpans is a collection of poetry bringing together all his interests. “Delimara” (Delimara Bay) is considered to be the best poem ever written in Maltese, by poet Immanuel Mifsud. It even inspired a film called Kont Diġà, which was aired at the European Film Festival, 2012. These poems may be read separately, yet they are also connected by a fine thread; a narrative line that slips in and out, alluding and eluding meaning, creating a whole and fragmenting at the same time. In 2016 he was a guest reader at the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival, organized by Inizjamed.

Along with relying on the senses and contradictory forces of the sea, Massa works upon themes such as religion, mythology, memory and imagination. He is able to create a certain flow by neglecting punctuation – allowing the reader to create multiple meanings and realities. Many of Massa’s poems require various readings because they are so multi-faceted, full of elements being re-experienced and re-interpreted, voiced and unvoiced.

Massa allows the reader to realise that no other language and message can be as important as the mythic one; they stand the test of time because they are living myths. He is able to take the reader to the edge, to have a peek at the possibilities, creating a space for diversity and uncertainty, as he plays and toys with language. At the end, he recognises that there is no need to fear being lost – at sea.