Verrà mai il dì (Costanzo Porta)

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(Posted 2022-09-11) CPDL #70762:

Editor: Gerhard Weydt (submitted 2022-09-11). Score information: A4, 8 pages, 198 kB Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes: Original note values, transposed down a fourth for STTTB because of the chiavette used. Second part starts at 2:24 in the mp3 file.

(Posted 2022-09-11) CPDL #70761:

Editor: Gerhard Weydt (submitted 2022-09-11). Score information: A4, 8 pages, 199 kB Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes: Original pitch and note values. Second part starts at 2:24 in the mp3 file.

General Information

Title: Verrà mai il dì
Composer: Costanzo Porta
Lyricist: Giovanni Andrea Gesualdo
Number of voices: 5vv Voicing: SATTB
Genre: Secular, Madrigal

Language: Italian
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1576 in Musica di 13 autori illustri, no. 11
Description:

External websites:

The publication containing the text

Original text and translations

In the eighth and fourteenth lines Porta’s text differs from the printed version, which is supplied in square brackets.

Italian text

Verrà mai il dì che mia pace riporte?
O ch’esta vita il gran morir mi lievi?
Nostri felici giorni, ah, quanto brievi,
E l’hore grate a noi, quanto son corte!

Ogni destra fortuna e lieta sorte
Mille ali ha nel fuggir veloci e lievi,
Ma nel ritorno poche, pigre e grievi,
Tal che prima di lei spesso vien morte.
[Tal che giugne a lei spesso inanzi morte.]

Ma a che dolermi più s’in van mi doglio?
L’ostinato destin non sia commosso
Per prieghi, per pietade o per orgoglio.

S’io potessi poter più ch’io non posso,
So che [ch’io] vorrei voler più che [ch’io] non voglio,
Ma’l men poter dal più voler m’ha mosso.

German translation

Wird jemals der Tag kommen, der meinen Frieden zurückbringt?
Oder das große Sterben mir dieses Leben nimmt?
Unsere glücklichen Tage, ach, wie kurz,
und die uns zugestandenen Stunden, wie knapp sind sie!

Jedes günstige Glück und erfreuliches Schicksal
hat tausend schnelle und leichte Flügel, um zu fiehen,
aber zur Rückkehr nur wenige, träge und schwere,
so dass ihm oft der Tod zuvorkommt.
[so dass sich ihm oft dann der Tod beigesellt.]

Aber warum mich weiter betrüben, wenn ich umsonst mich betrübe?
Das eigensinnige Schicksal wird nicht gerührt werden
durch Bitten, Mitleid oder Hochmut.

Wenn ich mehr könnte, als ich kann,
so weiß ich, dass ich dann mehr wollte als ich will,
aber weniger zu vermögen hat mich davon abgebracht, mehr zu wollen.

Translation by Gerhard Weydt

English translation

Will the day ever come, that brings back my peace?
Or that great dying takes my life?
Our happy days, alas, how short,
and the hours granted to us, how scarce they are?

All happy fortune and joyful fate
has thousand quick and light wings when fleeing,
but coming back has only few, languid and heavy,
such that death often coemes earlier.
[such that often death joins it.]

But why aggrieve myself any longer, if grieving is in vain?
Obstinate fate will ot be moved
by appeals, by pity or by pride.

If I could do more than I can,
I know I would want more than I want,
but being less able has kept me from wanting more.

Translation by Gerhard Weydt