Do not approach the urn
(Poet's title: Non t'accostar all'urna)
Set by Schubert:
D 688/1
[January 1820]
Part of Vier Canzonen für eine Singstimme mit Klavierbegleitung, D 688
Non t’accostar all’Urna,
Che l’osse mie rinserra,
Questa pietosa terra
È sacra al mio dolor.
Ricuso i tuoi giacinti,
Non voglio i tuoi pianti,
Che giovan agli estinti
Due lagrime, due fior?
Empia! Dovevi allor
Porgermi un fil d’aita,
Quando traea la vita
In grembo dei sospir.
A che d’inutil pianto
Assordi la foresta?
Rispetta un’Ombra mesta,
E lasciala dormir.
Do not approach the urn
That contains my bones,
This merciful earth
Is sacred to my suffering.
I refuse your hyacinths,
I do not want your tears,
How can the dead benefit
From two tears, from two flowers?
Faithless one! You should have
Offered me a thread of support
When I was living
In pain and sighing away.
Why is your futile crying
Deafening the woods?
Respect a sad shade
And let it sleep.
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.
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Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Rime di Iacopo Vittorelli. Parte seconda. Bassano dalla Stamperia Baseggio 1815, page 30; with Rime di Iacopo Vittorelli. Nuova Edizione. Dall’Autore medesimo accresciuta, e unicamente approvata. Bassano dalla Tipografia Remondiniana 1806, page 123; and with Le Anacreontiche del Vittorelli. Edizione Quarta notabilmente accresciuta. In Venezia MDCCXCVIII [1798], page 25 [unnumbered].
Note: Vittorelli reworked and reordered his Anacreontiche several times. This poem is number XXI in the first edition (1798), number XIII in the 1806 edition and number X in the 1815 and subsequent editions.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 25 here: https://books.google.at/books?id=eRnS3Lzq-NMC