Count Giacomo Leopardi

TO
Sul cominciar del mio novello canto,
Voi che tenete l'eliconie cime Prego, vergini Dee, concilio santo,
Che 'l mio stil conduciate e le mie rime:

ON
ER
NG
GE

When in the Thracian dust uprooted lay, In ruin vast, the strength of Italy, And Fate had doomed Hesperia's valleys green, And Tiber's shores, The trampling of barbarian steeds to feel, And from the leafless groves, On which the Northern Bear look...

This solitary hill has always been dear to
And this hedge, which prevents me from seeing most
The endless horizon
But when I sit and gaze,

It was the morning; through the shutters closed, Along the balcony, the earliest rays Of sunlight my dark room were entering; When, at the time that sleep upon our eyes Its softest and most grateful shadows casts, There stood beside me, looking in...

The morning rain, when, from her coop released, The hen, exulting, flaps her wings, when from The balcony the husbandman looks forth, And when the rising sun his trembling rays Darts through the falling drops, against my roof And windows gently be...

Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colleE questa siepe che da tanta
De'l ultimo orrizonte il guarde esclude
Ma sedendo e mirando
Spazi di la da quella, e

Beauty beloved, who hast my heart inspired, Seen from afar, or with thy face concealed, Save, when in visions of the night revealed, Or seen in daydreams bright, When all the fields are filled with light, And Nature's smile is sweet, Say, hast tho...

Though all the nations now Peace gathers under her white wings, The minds of Italy will ne'er be free From the restraints of their old lethargy, Till our ill-fated land cling fast Unto the glorious memories of the Past
Oh, lay it to thy heart...

When, as a boy,
I went To study in the Muses' school, One of them came to me, and took Me by the hand, and all that day, She through the work-shop led me graciously, The mysteries of the craft to see
She guided me Through every part, And...

Thou from the top of yonder antique tower, O lonely sparrow, wandering, hast gone, Thy song repeating till the day is done, And through this valley strays the harmony
How Spring rejoices in the fields around, And fills the air with light, So ...

I round the threshold wandering here, Vainly the tempest and the rain invoke, That they may keep my lady prisoner
And yet the wind was howling in the woods, The roving thunder bellowing in the clouds, Before the dawn had risen in the sky