Roberto Carifi (born 1948[1]inPistoia), is an Italian poet, philosopher, and translator, supported since the beginning from Piero Bigongiari, one of the major exponents of Florentine Hermeticism. Considered one of the most important poet and intellectual of his generation[2] he has been influenced by having a very difficult illness to cope with.
Since his university years Carifi was attracted by French and German philosophy, in his mature age he also crossed paths with Buddhist,[3] getting influenced for instance in his collections, such as Tibet and The Secret.. Alongside philosophical studies, there are those of psychoanalysis, first carried out at L'École Freudienne in Paris, as an auditor at the lectures held by Jacques Lacan,[4] and continued in Milan. Carifi poetic has been deeply influenced by the lyrical voices of Rainer Maria Rilke and Georg Trakl, on which he also practiced as a translator. In addition of being a poet, he plays the 'activity as a literary critic, attracted since his university years by French and German philosophy. In 2004 he got a stroke which affected and slow down his creativity.[5] In 2019 he was awarded with the Cilento Poetry Prize at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera.[6] In 2020 he adheres to the Empathic movement (Empathism).[7]