La bella man vi stringo (Luca Marenzio)

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  • (Posted 2023-04-29)  CPDL #73626:        (LilyPond)
Editor: Allen Garvin (submitted 2023-04-29).   Score information: Letter, 3 pages, 67 kB   Copyright: CC BY NC
Edition notes:
  • (Posted 2017-05-31)  CPDL #44779:          (Finale 2014)
Editor: Willem Verkaik (submitted 2017-05-31).   Score information: Letter, 4 pages, 275 kB   Copyright: CPDL
Edition notes:

General Information

Title: La bella man vi stringo
Composer: Luca Marenzio
Lyricist: Giovanni Battista Guarini (Madrigali 61)

Number of voices: 5vv   Voicing: SSAAB
Genre: SecularMadrigal

Language: Italian
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1599 in Il nono libro de madrigali a cinque voci, no. 14
Description: The high tessitura of the four upper parts, and the Guarini text suggest that this madrigal was written for the Concerto delle Donne; hence SSAAB-voicing.

External websites:

Original text and translations

Italian.png Italian text

La bella man vi stringo
E voi le ciglia per dolor stringete,
E mi chiamate ingiusto et inhumano.
Come tutto il gioire
Sia mio, vostro il martire e non vedete
Che se questa è la mano,
Che tien stretto il cor mio, giusto è il dolore,
Perchè stringendo lei stringo il mio core.

English.png English translation

I squeeze your beautiful hand,
and you tighten your eyes in pain,
and call me unjust and inhuman.
As if all the joy
were mine, and the suffering yours, and yet you do not see
that if this is the hand
that grips my heart tight, the pain is just,
because in clutching her, I squeeze my own heart.

Translation by Allen Garvin