Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), "On the Monument to Dante Being Erected in Florence," lines 120-124 (tr. Jonathan Galassi):
How did we come to these corrupted times?
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...?
The same (tr. Geoffrey L. Bickersteth):
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...?