The Poems of Giacomo Leopardi | Page 8

worse than what appeared to thee so sad?And infamous, have all our lives become.?Dear friend, who now would pity thee,?When none save for himself hath thought or care??Who would not thy keen anguish folly call,?When all things great and rare the name of folly bear??When envy, no, but worse than envy, far,?Indifference pervades our rulers all??Ah, who would now, when we all think?Of song so little, and so much of gain,?A laurel for thy brow prepare again?
Ah, since thy day, there has appeared but one,?Who has the fame of Italy redeemed:?Too good for his vile age, he stands alone;?One of the fierce Allobroges,?Whose manly virtue was derived?Direct from heavenly powers,?Not from this dry, unfruitful earth of ours;?Whence he alone, unarmed,--?O matchless courage!--from the stage,?Did war upon the ruthless tyrants wage;?The only war, the only weapon left,?Against the crimes and follies of the age.?First, and alone, he took the field:?None followed him; all else were cowards tame,?Lost to all sense of honor, or of shame.
Devoured by anger and by grief,?His spotless life he passed,?Till from worse scenes released by death, at last.?O my Victorio, this was not for thee?The fitting age, or land.?Great souls congenial times and climes demand.?In mere repose we live content,?And vulgar mediocrity;?The wise man sinks, the mob ascends,?Till all at last in one dread level ends.?Go on, thou great discoverer!?Revive the dead, since all the living sleep!?Dead tongues of ancient heroes arm anew;?Till this vile age a new life strive to win?By noble deeds, or perish in its sin!
TO HIS SISTER PAOLINA,
ON HER APPROACHING MARRIAGE.
Since now thou art about to leave?Thy father's quiet house,?And all the phantoms and illusions dear,?That heaven-born fancies round it weave,?And to this lonely region lend their charm,?Unto the dust and noise of life condemned,?By destiny, soon wilt thou learn to see?Our wretchedness and infamy,?My sister dear, who, in these mournful times,?Alas, wilt more unhappy souls bestow?On our unhappy Italy!?With strong examples strengthen thou their minds;?For cruel fate propitious gales?Hath e'er to virtue's course denied,?Nor in weak souls can purity reside.
Thy sons must either poor, or cowards be.?Prefer them poor. It is the custom still.?Desert and fortune never yet were friends;?The strife between them never ends.?Unhappy they, who in these evil days?Are born when all things totter to their fall!?But that we must to heaven leave.?Be this, above all things, thy care,?Thy children still to rear,?As those who court not Fortune's smiles,?Nor playthings are of idle hope, or fear:?And so the future age will call them blessed;?For, in this slothful and deceitful world,?The living virtue ever we despise,?The dead we load with eulogies.
Women, to you our country looks,?For the redemption of her fame:?Ah, not unto our injury and shame,?On the soft lustre of your eyes?A power far mightier was conferred?Than that of fire or sword!?The wise and strong, in thought and act, are by?Your judgment led; nay all who live?Beneath the sun, to you still bend the knee.?On you I call, then; answer me!?Have _you_ youth's holy aspirations quenched??And are our natures broken, crushed by _you_??These sluggish minds, these low desires,?These nerveless arms, these feeble knees.?Say, say, are you to blame for these?
Love is the spur to noble deeds,?To him its worth who knows;?And beauty still to lofty love inspires.?Love never in his spirit glows,?Whose heart exults not in his breast,?When angry winds in fight descend,?And heaven gathers all its clouds,?And mountain crests the lightnings rend.?O wives, O maidens, he?Who shrinks from danger, turns his back upon?His country in her need, and only seeks?His base desires and appetites to feed,?Excites your hatred and your scorn;?If ye for men, and not for milk-sops, feel?The glow of love o'er your soft bosoms steal.
The mothers of unwarlike sons?O may ye ne'er be called!?Your children still inure?For virtue's sake all trials to endure;?To scorn the vices of this wretched age;?To cherish loyal thoughts, and high desires;?And learn how much they owe unto their sires.?The sons of Sparta thus became,?Amid the memories of heroes old,?Deserving of the Grecian name;?While the young spouse the trusty sword?Upon the loved one's side would gird,?And, afterwards, with her black locks,?The bloodless, naked corpse concealed,?When homeward borne upon the faithful shield.
Virginia, thy soft cheek?In Beauty's finest mould was framed;?But thy disdain Rome's haughty lord inflamed.?How lovely wast thou, in thy youth's sweet prime,?When the rough dagger of thy sire?Thy snowy breast did smite,?And thou, a willing victim, didst descend?Into realms of night!?"May old age wither and consume my frame,?O father,"--thus she said;?"And may they now for me the tomb prepare,?E'er I the impious bed?Of that foul tyrant share:?And if my blood new life and liberty?May give to Rome, by thy hand let me die!"
Ah, in those better days?When more propitious shone the sun than now,?Thy tomb, dear child, was not left comfortless,?But honored with the tears of all.?Behold, around thy lovely corpse, the