To the lyre | Echo of my laments

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by Giovanni Fantoni (1755 - 1807)

Translation © by Michael Berridge

Alla cetra

Language: Italian (Italiano)

Our translations: ENG

Eco [de'miei]¹ lamenti,
Cetra fedel, che tenti?
Spiegare il mio dolore
Non può lo stesso amore.

Flebil tu cedi invano
All'ingegnosa mano,
Querele imiti e pianti
Con le corde tremanti.

Rispondi a'miei sospiri
Con replicati giri;
Ma quei, che rende il suono
I miei sospir non sono.

[Fille l'amato]² bene
Lungi è da [queste arene]³;
Spiegare il mio dolore
Non puó lo stesso Amore.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• M. Glinka

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Poesie di Giovanni Fantoni toscano fra gli Arcadi Labindo, Pisa, 1800, page 188.

¹ Glinka: "di miei"
² Glinka: "Fini amato"
³ Glinka: "questa sirene"

Text Authorship:

by Giovanni Fantoni (1755 - 1807), "Alla cetra" [author's text checked 1 time 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 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804 - 1857), "Alla cetra", from Due Canzonette Italiane, no. 2, also set in Russian (Русский) [ sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ENG ; composed by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka.

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English (Michael Berridge) , "To the lyre", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-02
Line count: 16
Word count: 67

To the lyre

Language: English after the Italian (Italiano)

Echo of my laments,
faithful lyre, what are you attempting?
Explaining my suffering
is beyond the power of  love itself.

Dolefully you yield in vain
to the practised hand
imitating plaints and sobs
with your trembling strings.

You respond to my sighs
with elaborate turns,
but as a bringer of sleep
my sighs will not serve.

Forget the loved one,
great is the distance from this siren,
explaining my suffering
is beyond the power of love itself.

Note: this is a translation of Glinka's version.

Text Authorship:

Translation from Italian (Italiano) to English copyright © 2017 by Michael Berridge, (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 Giovanni Fantoni (1755 - 1807), "Alla cetra"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2017-11-08
Line count: 16
Word count: 77