Giovanni Pascoli was born in San Mauro Pascoli on 31 December 1855. He was an Italian poet, classical scholar and an emblematic figure of Italian literature in the late nineteenth century. He was, together with Gabriele D'Annunzio, the greatest Italian decadent poet. From 1897 to 1903 he taught Latin at the University of Messina, and then in Pisa. He became professor of Italian literature at the University of Bologna, taking the position of Giosue Carducci when he retired. In 1912, Pascoli died of liver cancer at the age of 56 in Bologna. Elena Borelli teaches Italian and Intercultural Studies at King's College London, UK. Her research focuses on the culture and literature of the late nineteenth century in Europe, and she has published extensively on the notion of desire and issues of translation and reception during that time, as well as on the poets Giovanni Pascoli and Gabriele D'Annunzio. She is also a translator, producing (together with James Ackhurst) translations from contemporary and modern poets for the Journal of Italian Translation. James Ackhurst is a writer and translator based in Wellington, New Zealand. He has published translations (produced with Elena Borelli) in the Journal of Italian Translation and poems, stories, and criticism in takahe, Turbine, Poetry New Zealand, Snorkel, Pericles at Play, Poetry Salzburg Review, Quadrant and The Pantograph Punch.