LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,138)
  • Text Authors (19,558)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Carlo Zangarini (1874 - 1943)
Translation © by Laura Prichard

Invito alla danza
Language: Italian (Italiano) 
Our translations:  ENG
Madonna, d'un braccio soave
Ch'io stringa l'orgoglio dell'anca:
Voi siete d'amore la nave,
La vela, madonna, vi manca:
Io sono la vela a vogare
Intorno al ceruleo mare.
Voi siete la mobile fusta
Che il mar della musica sfiora:
Io sono la vela robusta
Che il viaggio dirige e rincora;
La nave risale, discende,
La vela ammaina, distende.
Volete che l'onda si svolga
In suon di gavotta gentile?
Volete che il valzer disciolga
La larga sua corsa febbrile?
Io faccio l'inchino di rito,
Madonna, e alla danza v'invito.

Text Authorship:

  • by Carlo Zangarini (1874 - 1943) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Ottorino Respighi (1879 - 1936), "Invito alla danza", P. 67 (1906?) [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (Laura Prichard) , title 1: "Invitation to the dance", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 88

Invitation to the dance
Language: English  after the Italian (Italiano) 
My lady, with a gentle arm
I grasp with pride your waist1. 
You are the ship of love,
A sail, my lady, you lack:
I am the sail [that can] propel you
Around the cerulean sea.
You are the nimble ship2	
That glides over the sea of music:
I am the robust sail
That directs and cheers the voyage:
The ship rises, falls,
The sail luffs, fills.
Do you want the wave to roll
Like the sound of a gentle gavotte?
Do you want the waltz to melt away
Your long, feverish journey?
I make the customary bow,
My lady, and I invite you to dance.

View original text (without footnotes)
1 literally: your hip
2 a light, fast galley, the favorite ship of pirates on the Barbary Coast

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from Italian (Italiano) to English copyright © 2015 by Laura Prichard, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in Italian (Italiano) by Carlo Zangarini (1874 - 1943)
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2015-12-26
Line count: 18
Word count: 109

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris