Firstpublished:1587 in Il quinto libro de madrigali a 5 voci (Venice: Angelo Gardano), no. 17 Description: This is clearly an elegy on the death of young nobleman in battle, but as yet I have not found any 16th century Scipione that fits here. -ATG
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Original text and translations
Italian text
Scipio: l'acerbo caso
onde il lucido sol de' giorni tuoi
fu sospinto a l'occaso
sul primo lampeggiar de' raggi suoi.
La tua patria dolente
piangerà eternamente,
sospirando sua sorte,
più nelle piaghe tue che la tua morte.
Tu morendo innocente
da crudel ferro anciso,
volasti in paradiso
ove l'eterno ben godi presente.
Ella in tenebre avvolta
d'oscura nebbia d'immortal dolore,
priva del tuo splendore,
in perpetuo martir resta sepolta,
perché l'empia ferita
che ti tolse la vita,
quando del sangue tuo la terra tinse,
nella tua morte ogni sua gloria estinse.
English translation
O Scipio: the bitter fate
whereby the bright sun of your days
was driven to set
at the first blaze of its rays.
Your dolorous native land
shall weep eternally,
sighing over your fate,
more for your wounds than for your death.
You, dying innocently,
by cruel steel slain,
flew to paradise
where you presently enjoy eternal blessing.
She, wrapped in the darkness
of the gloomy fog of immortal grief,
deprived of your splendor,
remains entombed in perpetual suffering,
because the cruel wound
that took your life,
when your blood soaked the earth,
extinguished her every glory with your death.