Song of the souls | They flee: the years, the betrayals, the foolish thoughts

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by Luigi Illica (1857 - 1919)

Translation © by Laura Prichard

Canto d'anime

Language: Italian (Italiano)

Our translations: ENG

Fuggon gli anni gli inganni e le chimere
Cadon recisi i fiori e le speranze
In vane e tormentose disianze
Svaniscon le mie brevi primavere.
Ma vive e canta ancora forte e solo
Nelle notti del cuore un ideale
Siccome in alta notte siderale
Inneggia solitario l'usignolo.
Canta, canta ideal tu solo forte
E dalle brume audace eleva il vol lassù,
A sfidar l'oblio l'odio la morte
Dove non son tenèbre e tutto è sol!
Tutto è sol! Tutto è sol!

Text Authorship:

by Luigi Illica (1857 - 1919) [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 Giacomo Puccini (1858 - 1924), "Canto d'anime", 1904 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "Song of the souls", copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-05-03
Line count: 13
Word count: 81

Song of the souls

Language: English after the Italian (Italiano)

They flee: the years, the betrayals, the foolish thoughts
Cut short are flowers and hopes
In vain and tormented desires
My brief years take flight.
But something lives and sings again, strong, by itself
In the heart of night: one ideal
Just as through deep, cold nights
The solitary nightingale sings.
Sing, sing this ideal in a loud solo
And from the mist audaciously rise above,
To defy oblivion, hate, death,
Where there is no more darkness, and all is sun!
All is sun! All is sun!

Text Authorship:

Translation from Italian (Italiano) to English copyright © 2020 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 Luigi Illica (1857 - 1919)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2020-03-30
Line count: 13
Word count: 87