from Cosi fan tutte
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Christa Ludwig - Dorabella
Gundula Janowitz - Fiordiligi
Walther Berry - Don Alfonso
Soave sia il vento,
Tranquilla sia l'onda,
Ed ogni elemento
Benigno risponda
Ai nostri {vostri) desir.
[Gentle is the wind,
Calm is the wave,
And every one of the elements
Answer warmly
To our (your) desire.]
quite probably the most beautiful trio, if not just the measures of music, that Mozart wrote. five lines conveying longing, despair and heartbreak because a loved one has left.
i may have mentioned in a previous post that i had the great fortune of spending an evening with Christa Ludwig (she is in the dark wig) and her husband a number of years ago. we laughed the entire evening.
3 comments:
It's a wonderful aria.
I must correct your translation, however - the verbs are all in the subjunctive:
May the wind be gentle,
may the wave(s) be calm,
and may every one of the elements
warmly fulfil our (your) wishes.
It comes in Act I when the boyfriends are leaving the extremely distraught young women, who don't know when or whether they'll see their partners again. The subjunctive aspect ("may the wind be," etc.) is an important part of the lyrics - the women and Don Alfonso are singing a farewell, and as it turns out in the opera, things will never be the same again between the young lovers.
I agreewith Mr. Gray and venture to offer my own translation, which strives to reflect the rhymes in the Italian. I leave it to you to decide whether it descends to doggerel:
Fair be the breeze
And calm the seas,
May earth, fire, water, air,
Kindly answer this our prayer.
But what counts in the end is the sublimest music ever written, sung sublimely here. Thank you for posting.
thank you; i included what seems to be the most common translation that is used;
i have so often found, since i spoke only Italian for the first four years of my life, that the translations used in super-titles, librettos, etc can be so off the mark that they actually change the meaning a lot.
the Italianate is just so beautiful in most literal translations, but the professional translator decides to make it more in the English vernacular - too often a mistake...
Post a Comment