Our sorrows and our pains, These are thy noble gains. But oh, thou Love's and Nature's masterer, Thou conqueror of the crowned, What dost thou on this ground, Too small a circle for thy mighty sphere? Go, and make slumber dear To the renowned and high; E son tuoi fatti egregi Le pene, e i pianti nostri. Ma tu d'Amore e di Natura donno, Tu domator de' regi, Che fai tra questi chiostri, Che la grandezza tua capir non ponno Vattene, e turba il sonno A gl' illustri e potenti : ? We here, a lowly race, Can live without thy grace, After the use of mild antiquity. Go, let us love; since years No truce allow, and life soon disappears; Go, let us love; the daylight dies, is born; But unto us the light Dies once for all; and sleep brings on eternal night. Noi qui, negletta e bassa Turba, senza te lassa Viver ne l' uso de l' antiche genti. Amiam; che non la tregua Con gli anni umana viva, e si dilegua. Amiam; che 'l sol si muore, e poi rinasce; A noi sua breve luce S'asconde, e 'l sonno eterna notte adduce. PASSAGES FROM REDI'S DITHYRAMBIC POEM OF BACCHUS IN TUSCANY. THE Author has translated the whole of this popular piece of Italian pleasantry, which is a criticism on the wines of the poet's country; but even in the original it is perhaps too long, especially as a monologue; for Bacchus talks it all from beginning to end; and the local nature of the subjects and the allusions renders it, for the most part, of little interest to a foreign reader. He has persuaded himself, however, that a few passages will bring their recommendation with them, in the gaiety of their animal spirits. The original is like a Bacchanalian dance, broken occasionally with quaint contradictions to the movement, and pithy speeches addressed to the spectators. BACCHUS'S OPINION OF WINE, CHOCOLATE, TEA, BEER, AND OTHER INCOMPATIBLE BEVERAGES. GIVE me, give me Buriano, Trebbiano, Colombano, Give me bumpers, rich and clear! Io di Pescia il Buriano, Mi tracanno a piena mano : 'Tis the true old Aurum Potabile. Gilding life when it wears shabbily: Helen's old Nepenthe 'tis, That in the drinking Swallowed thinking, And was the receipt for bliss. Thence it is, that ever and aye, When he doth philosophize, Egli è il vero Oro Potabile, Che mandar suole in esilio Ogni male irrimediabile; Egli è d' Elena il Nepente, Che fa stare il mondo allegro, Da' pensieri Foschi e neri Sempre sciolto, e sempre esente. Quindi avvien, che sempre mai Good old glorious Rucellai He lifteth it, and by the shine Atoms with their airy justles, And all manner of corpuscles; And, as through a crystal sky-light, How morning differeth from evening twilight; And further telleth us the reason why go Some stars with such a lazy light, and some with a vertigo. Lo teneva in compagnia Il buon vecchio Rucellai; Ed al chiaro di lui ben comprendea Gli atomi tutti quanti, e ogni corpusculo, E molto ben distinguere sapea Dal matutino il vespertin crepusculo, Ed additava donde avesse origine La pigrizia degli astri, e la virtigine. |