Actually, it is a tribute to a medical doctor and poet. Dr Louis A. Buttigieg (1913 − 1964) was born in Vittoriosa and served as general practitioner in the city as well as District Medical Officer in other localities.
He pursued his medical studies in Geneva. Besides being the charming “it-Tabib Gigi”, he was also a talented poet who left a rich repertoire of poems that demonstrate his mastery of the English language and his creative imagination. Most of these poems were published in The Sunday Times of Malta.
It was his daughter, Maria Louise Dimech, who had the excellent idea of putting together an anthology of her father’s poetry. She was supported in this project by Dr Carmel Mallia, of the Esperanto Academy, who also added a perceptive prologue and literary appreciation to the anthology.
Dr Buttigieg’s poetry echoes his maturity and experience and bears the imprint of his patriotism, especially his esteem for his native city, Vittoriosa. He got on well with the city community and was appointed president of the Duke of Edinburgh Band Club, later re-named St Lawrence Band, in 1949-50.
The book, entitled “The Clock Tower”, has a picture of the squat, medieval clock tower that once dominated Vittoriosa Square on its cover. Vittoriosa lost this symbolic landmark in the last war and has yearned for its resurgence ever since. The historic city was still emerging from the frightful ravages of war when Dr Buttigieg, along with the late Francis X Mallia, ex-curator of the museum, and myself, co-founded the Vittoriosa Historical & Cultural Society in 1954.
He was appointed first president of the society and I have fond memories of him leading the committee meetings at the society’s first premises in a room in the Inquisitors Palace. The very first initiative of the society under his presidency was a memorandum to the authorities pleading for the re-building of the Clock Tower.
He sorrowfully laments that “... though I may not live to see the tower in the square” maybe his progeny would one day hear its chimes again on their way to school. The society, under his guidance, revived the commemoration of the Great Siege Victory at the foot of the original Victory Monument in Vittoriosa Square, an event that is now the responsibility of the Vittoriosa local council. For him, the 8th September is the day, as it always has been, when “we prayed for our dead, and mindful of their glory we rejoiced”.
Dr Buttigieg’s horizon extends beyond Vittoriosa: he shifts his thoughts to “proud” Valletta, “stern and stately” Mdina, Floriana with its “lion’s steady stare”, and far-away Gozo where “men have something that seems lacking here”. He speaks with nostalgia about vanishing Maltese traditions, like the disappearance of the milking goat from our streets, and comments on the growing craze in the 1950s for the cinema and the TV.
Dr Buttigieg cannot avoid his religious upbringing and writes emotionally about St Lawrence’s martyrdom, patron saint of Vittoriosa, about St Paul’s shipwreck, Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu, and of Tas-Silg. He ponders about the Christian message of Christmas, Holy Week and Easter. Due to his contact with the illness of his patients as a doctor, he muses about the afterlife, but in this he is rather more optimistic than his contemporary doctor-poet, Ruzar Briffa.
The city of Vittoriosa is thankful for this initiative, which gives it the opportunity not only to re-live the memory of one of its distinguished sons, but also to take pleasure in the serenity and musicality of his poetry.
Louis A. Buttigieg, The Clock Tower; publisher Carmel Dimech 2012, 89p.
Lorenzo A. Zahra
VITTORIOSA