Look at how white the moon is
(Poet's title: Guarda, che bianca luna)
Set by Schubert:
D 688/2
[January 1820]
Part of Vier Canzonen für eine Singstimme mit Klavierbegleitung, D 688
Guarda che bianca luna!
Guarda che notte azzurra!
Un’aura non sussurra,
No, non tremola uno stel.
L’usignoletto solo
Va dalla siepe all’orno,
E sospirando intorno
Chiama la sua fedel.
Ella, che il sente oppena,
Vien di fronda in fronda,
E pare che gli dica,
“No, non piangere: son qui.”
Che gemiti son questi!
Che dolci pianti Irene,
Tu mai non me sapesti
Rispondere cosi!
Look at how white the moon is,
Look at how blue the night sky is.
There is not a breeze stirring,
No, not a single branch is moving.
A solitary nightingale
Is going from the hedge to the ash tree,
And sighing all the time
It cries out for its companion.
She, who can barely hear him,
Goes from branch to branch,
And appears to be saying to him,
“No, don’t cry: I’m here.”
What groans they are!
What sweet laments, Irene.
You would never be able
To answer me like that!
All translations into English that appear on this website, unless otherwise stated, are by Malcolm Wren. You are free to use them on condition that you acknowledge Malcolm Wren as the translator and schubertsong.uk as the source. Unless otherwise stated, the comments and essays that appear after the texts and translations are by Malcolm Wren and are © Copyright.
☙
Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Rime di Iacopo Vittorelli. Parte seconda. Bassano dalla Stamperia Baseggio 1815, page 27; with Rime di Iacopo Vittorelli. Nuova Edizione. Dall’Autore medesimo accresciuta, e unicamente approvata. Bassano dalla Tipografia Remondiniana 1806, page 115; and with Le Anacreontiche del Vittorelli. Edizione Quarta notabilmente accresciuta. In Venezia MDCCXCVIII [1798], page 11 [unnumbered].
Note: Vittorelli reworked and reordered his Anacreontiche several times. This poem is number VII in the first edition (1798), number V in the 1806 edition, number VII in the 1815 edition, and number VIII in the 1826 edition.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 11 here: https://books.google.at/books?id=eRnS3Lzq-NMC