Italian (Italiano) translation of How should I your true love know

by Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897), no title, WoO posth. 22 no. 1 (1873), from Ophelia-Lieder, no. 1, also set in German (Deutsch)

Note: this is a translation of one multi-text setting.

How should I your true love know
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff,
And his sandal shoon.

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, appears in Hamlet [an adaptation]
  • sometimes misattributed to William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

Based on:

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Note: this is often referred to as the Walsingham Ballad, and is quoted in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5. Ophelia is singing.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti's poem An old song ended refers to this song.

Quoted in Rhian Samuel's The Gaze.


Researcher for this page: Ted Perry 
He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass green turf,
At his heels a stone.1

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
  • sometimes misattributed to William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

See other settings of this text.

View original text (without footnotes)

These words are sung by Ophelia in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5, but they are probably not by Shakespeare.

Quoted in Rhian Samuel's The Gaze.

1 Rihm adds "Oho! Oho! Nay, but ... mark"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Author(s): Anonymous/Unidentified Artist 
Come potrò riconoscere il vero amore
Da un altro?
Dal cappello a conchiglia, dal bastone
E dai sandali.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2008 by Ferdinando Albeggiani, (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.
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Da tempo è morto e sepolto,
morto e sepolto, fanciulla!
Sul suo capo una zolla d'erba,
Una pietra ai suoi piedi.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2019 by Ferdinando Albeggiani, (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: 

Based on:

Go to the general single-text view


Translation © by Ferdinando Albeggiani