Che si può fare Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677)
Strozzi @ 400
October 26, 2019, 8 PM
House of the Redeemer, NYC
TENET Vocal Artists:
Jolle Greenleaf, soprano and artistic director
Teresa Wakim, soprano
Virginia Warnken Kelsey, mezzo-soprano
Adam Cockerham, theorbo
Jeffrey Grossman, harpsichord
Hank Heijink, archlute
Shirley Hunt, viola da gamba
Daniel Rigazzi, stage director
English Translation:
What can you do?
The stars, intractable,
have no pity.
Since the gods don't give
a measure of peace in my suffering,
what can I do?
What can you say?
From the heavens disasters
keep raining down on me;
Since that treacherous Cupid
denies respite to my torture,
what can I say?
That's how it is with cruel destiny
the powerful tyrant, it condemns the innocent:
thus the purest gold
of constancy and faithfulness, alas,
is continually refined in the fire of pain.
Yes, yes, I have to suffer,
yes, I must sigh,
I must breathe with difficulty.
In order to eternalize my trials
heaven withholds from me
the final period of death
to my lifespan.
You spirits of the damned,
you're blessed,
since all the cruel Eumenides*
are intent only on torturing my soul.
Thus it happens that he who follows
the shadow of a blind god
stumbles in the end.
~Sig. Brunacci (translation Richard Kolb)
*In Aeschylus's Eumenides, the furies of Dis are guardians of the underworld that were offered a position of honor in Athens by Athena, and upon their acceptance were transformed into Eumenides, or "soothed ones". The reference here seems to combine Aeschylus's account with that of Dante's Inferno.
0 Comments