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by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)
Translation by Roberto Ascoli ( flourished 1891-1930 )

Arethusa
Language: English 
Arethusa arose
From her couch of snows
In the Acroceraunian mountains, --
From cloud and from crag,
With many a jag, 
Shepherding her bright fountains.
She leapt down the rocks,
With her rainbow locks
Streaming among the streams; --
Her steps paved with green
The downward ravine
Which slopes to the western gleams;
And gliding and springing
She went, ever singing,
In murmurs as soft as sleep; 
The Earth seemed to love her,
And Heaven smiled above her,
As she lingered towards the deep.

Then Alpheus bold,
On his glacier cold, 
With his trident the mountains strook;
And opened a chasm
In the rocks--with the spasm
All Erymanthus shook.
And the black south wind
It unsealed behind
The urns of the silent snow,
And earthquake and thunder
Did rend in sunder
The bars of the springs below.
And the beard and the hair
Of the River-god were
Seen through the torrent's sweep,
As he followed the light
Of the fleet nymph's flight
To the brink of the Dorian deep.

'Oh, save me! Oh, guide me!
And bid the deep hide me,
For he grasps me now by the hair!'
The loud Ocean heard, 
To its blue depth stirred,
And divided at her prayer;
And under the water
The Earth's white daughter
Fled like a sunny beam;
Behind her descended
Her billows, unblended
With the brackish Dorian stream: --
Like a gloomy stain
On the emerald main
Alpheus rushed behind, --
As an eagle pursuing
A dove to its ruin
Down the streams of the cloudy wind.

Under the bowers
Where the Ocean Powers
Sit on their pearled thrones;
Through the coral woods
Of the weltering floods,
Over heaps of unvalued stones; 
Through the dim beams
Which amid the streams
Weave a network of coloured light;
And under the caves,
Where the shadowy waves
Are as green as the forest's night: --
Outspeeding the shark,
And the sword-fish dark,
Under the Ocean's foam,
And up through the rifts 
Of the mountain clifts
They passed to their Dorian home.

And now from their fountains
In Enna's mountains,
Down one vale where the morning basks, 
Like friends once parted
Grown single-hearted,
They ply their watery tasks.
At sunrise they leap
From their cradles steep 
In the cave of the shelving hill;
At noontide they flow
Through the woods below
And the meadows of asphodel;
And at night they sleep 
In the rocking deep
Beneath the Ortygian shore; --
Like spirits that lie
In the azure sky
When they love but live no more. 

Text Authorship:

  • by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), "Arethusa", written 1820, first published 1824 [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 Granville Ransome Bantock, Sir (1868 - 1946), "Arethusa", published 1927 [ 6-part women's chorus a cappella ], no. h. 12276 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Franz Carl Bornschein (1879 - 1948), "Arethusa", published 1926 [ soprano, SSA chorus, and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Ellen Dickson (1819 - 1878), as Dolores, "Arethusa", published 1861 [ voice and piano ], London [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in Italian (Italiano), a translation by Roberto Ascoli ( flourished 1891-1930 ) , "Aretusa" ; composed by Ottorino Respighi.
      • Go to the text.

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

  • CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Arethusa"


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2005-01-30
Line count: 90
Word count: 415

Aretusa
Language: Italian (Italiano)  after the English 
Sorge Aretusa, lieve,
dal suo letto di neve
nei tempestosi Acroceranni monti
dalla rapida balza
e dalla nube s'alza,
e al pascolo conduce le sue fonti.
Salta le roccie, e ai venti
sparge le iridescenti
chiome che ai rivi gettano fulgori
i passi ornan di verde
il pendio che si perde
dell'occidente ai tremuli bagliori.
E scorrendo e cantando
in un murmure blando
come il sonno ella fluttua gioconda.
E all'abisso si spinge
mentre d'amor la cinge
la terra e di sorriso il ciel la inonda.

Ed ecco dall'algente
ghiacciaio col tridente
scuote Alfeo le montagne 
e dall'estrema roccia un varco si schiude 
sotto l'impeto rude
spasima tutto l'Erimanto e trema.
Del mezzogiorno il tetro vento,
celato dietro l'urne di neve
candide e silenti
e il terremoto e il tuono
squarcian con cupo suono
gli argini nel profondo alle sorgenti.







"Oh! tu salvami! Guidami,
ed all'abisso grida d'occultarmi!
Ei la chioma già mi afferra!"
L'oceano dalle fonde
azzurrità risponde
fremendo dalla sua prece si disserra.
La candida figliola
della terra s'invola
sotto l'acqua al sol raggio lucente;
le onde sue discese
dietro i suoi passi illese
restano dalla dorica corrente.
Cupa macchia sul mare di smeraldo
ecco appare Alfeo
che quasi a vol dietro le piomba;
come aquila che investa,
persa nella tempesta
del vento nubiloso una colomba.

Sotto gli archi azzurrini,
dove i Numi marini
stanno in troni di perle; 
nelle ascose selvette, 
ove tra l'onde
il corallo profonde
i rami; sulle pietre radiose;
tra i rai cupolucenti,
che fan nelle correnti
reti di luce colorata in teste;
sotto le grotte, dove
la fosca onda si muove
verde come la notte alle foreste;
sotto la sonora
spuma del mar;
tra i cupi frastagli delle rupi;
giunsero alla lor dorica dimora.

Oggi, d'Enna tra i monti,
dalle native fonti
compion delle acque gli agili lavori
giù per la valle: amici,
disgiunti un dì, felici
ora che un solo cuore sono i due cuori.
Da lor culle, nel vivo
della roccia in declivio,
balzano appena l'alba imbianca il cielo;
errano a mezzogiorno
tra le selve d'intorno
tra le praterie dell'asfodelo.
E dormon nella notte
entro le cave grotte
sotto l'Ortigia, 
che discende giù:
spiriti che han riposo
nel cielo radioso;
amano ancora ma non vivon più.

Text Authorship:

  • by Roberto Ascoli ( flourished 1891-1930 ), "Aretusa" [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in English by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), "Arethusa", written 1820, first published 1824
    • Go to the text page.

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), "Aretusa", published 1911 [voice and orchestra], Milan, Ricordi ; also in a German translation by R. S. Hoffmann [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-10-02
Line count: 84
Word count: 375

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

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