Cassino, City of Martyrs,
by Robert Sullivan, Huia Publishers, $29.95
The dedication; "With arohanui to my grandfather Massey Turi Sullivan, our family and to everyone whose life has been changed by war," says much about this moving volume of poems, illustrated by photographs of the attack and near-ruin of the famous
Benedictine monastery on the hill at Cassino.
Robert Sullivan travelled to the site in recent years, and to other sites that meant much to him in his own literary career; to Florence, home of Dante; and down the coast of western Italy, full of beauty and resonance to his spirit and background in Catholic religion.
The battleground, however, forms the crux of his experience.
He meditates in its cemeteries, recreates powerfully in his imagination the pain of death and wounding, the hideous noise of artillery, the warriors' exhaustion, contrasted with the peaceful order of monasticism. He links all this to life as a young Maori. Beyond this, he draws parallels between Greek and Roman myths and legends and those of Maori.
Cassino, City of Martyrs is rendered in lines of penetrating beauty and depth of understanding.
Two generations have passed since the epic battle and Sullivan's poems and the documentary photographs, devoid of jingoism, afford a solemn tribute to its sad yet mighty history.
Sullivan's voice reminds us of the lessons of it all.
