LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,114)
  • Text Authors (19,495)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Giacomo Leopardi (1798 - 1837)
Translation by Frederick Townsend (flourished 1887)

Alla luna
Language: Italian (Italiano) 
O graziosa luna, io mi rammento
Che, or volge l'anno, sovra questo colle
Io venia pien d'angoscia a rimirarti:
E tu pendevi allor su quella selva
Siccome or fai, che tutta la rischiari.
Ma nebuloso e tremulo dal pianto
Che mi sorgea sul ciglio, alle mie luci
Il tuo volto apparia, che travagliosa
Era mia vita: ed è, né cangia stile,
O mia diletta luna. E pur mi giova
La ricordanza, e il noverar l'etate
Del mio dolore. Oh come grato occorre
Nel tempo giovanil, quando ancor lungo
La speme e breve ha la memoria il corso,
Il rimembrar delle passate cose,
Ancor che triste, e che l'affanno duri!

Text Authorship:

  • by Giacomo Leopardi (1798 - 1837), "Alla luna" [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 Wilhelm Killmayer (1927 - 2017), "Alla luna", 1965, first performed 1967 [ baritone and orchestra ], from Tre Canti di Leopardi, no. 3, Mainz, Schott [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Paul Heyse (1830 - 1914) ; composed by Eugen d'Albert.
      • Go to the text.

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

  • ENG English (Frederick Townsend) , "To the Moon", first published 1887


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-07
Line count: 16
Word count: 109

To the Moon
Language: English  after the Italian (Italiano) 
  O lovely moon, how well do I recall
  The time,--'tis just a year--when up this hill
  I came, in my distress, to gaze at thee:
  And thou suspended wast o'er yonder grove,
  As now thou art, which thou with light dost fill.
  But stained with mist, and tremulous, appeared
  Thy countenance to me, because my eyes
  Were filled with tears, that could not be suppressed;
  For, oh, my life was wretched, wearisome,
  And _is_ so still, unchanged, beloved moon!
  And yet this recollection pleases me,
  This computation of my sorrow's age.
  How pleasant is it, in the days of youth,
  When hope a long career before it hath,
  And memories are few, upon the past
  To dwell, though sad, and though the sadness last!

Text Authorship:

  • by Frederick Townsend (flourished 1887), "To the Moon", first published 1887 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in Italian (Italiano) by Giacomo Leopardi (1798 - 1837), "Alla luna"
    • 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):

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this page: Andrew Schneider [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2019-04-30
Line count: 16
Word count: 125

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

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris