Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Bitter Fate
Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), "On the Monument to Dante Being Erected in Florence," lines 120-124 (tr. Jonathan Galassi):
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How did we come to these corrupted times?The same (tr. Geoffrey L. Bickersteth):
Bitter fate, why give us life,
or else why not an earlier death,
when you see our country
enslaved by profane foreigners...?
Perchè venimmo a sì perversi tempi?
Perchè il nascer ne desti o perchè prima
Non ne desti il morire,
Acerbo fato? onde a stranieri ed empi
Nostra patria vedendo ancella e schiava...?
How came our times to be thus out of joint?
Why were we born or why, ere such a day,
Not deal us merciful death,
O bitter Fate, that dost our land appoint
To be the slave of impious foreigners...?
