by Anonymous / Unidentified Author and sometimes misattributed to Guido Cavalcanti (c1250 - 1300)
Translation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882)

Canzon discapigliata va'piangendo
Language: Italian (Italiano) 
Canzon discapigliata va'piangendo,
Rompendo ogni durezza di cor duro;
Dì che nostra natura
Ritorna, e si converte pure in terra;
Ma spirto, che non erra,
La sciagura,
Che l'anima, ch'è pura,
Ritorna in Cielo el suo fatto chiedendo.

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Note: this is the end of the poem beginning "O lento, pigro, ingrato, ignar che fai"

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
  • sometimes misattributed to Guido Cavalcanti (c1250 - 1300)

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-07
Line count: 8
Word count: 38

Language: English  after the Italian (Italiano) 
 Dishevell'd and in tears, go, song of mine,
 To break the hardness of the heart of man:
 Say how his life began
 From dust, and in that dust doth sink supine:
 Yet, say, th'unerring spirit of grief shall guide 
 His soul, being purified,
 To seek its Maker at the heav'nly shrine.
Note: this is the end of a poem beginning "O sluggish, hard, ingrate, what doest thou?" Rossetti's source was Cicciaporci: Rime Inedite, Canzone XI, pages 68-71.

Composition:

    Set to music by Edward Elgar, Sir (1857 - 1934), "Go, song of mine", op. 57, published 1909 [ SAATTB chorus a cappella ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882), no title, from "Canzone: A Dispute with Death" in The Early Italian Poets, first published 1861

Based on:

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Researcher for this page: Virginia Knight

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-07
Line count: 7
Word count: 51