Amore (2010) · 4 min

An art song on the poem “Amore” by Attilio Bertolucci

soprano, soprano saxophone, accordion

Commissioned by and written for Ensemble L’Arsenale


Program Note

Commissioned and first performed by members of Ensemble L’Arsenale, directed by Filippo Perocco: Livia Rado, soprano; Ilario Morciano, saxophone; Luca Piovesan, accordion; at the Fenway Center, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, on May 2, 2010. Reprised at the Musei d’Estate, Chiostro di Santa Caterina, Treviso, Italy, on August 26, 2010.

Amore by Attilio Bertolucci 

 

La luna coronata di margherite 

Ride nei vaghi occhi infermi, 

Caprioli d’argento 

Scherzano nelle radure del cielo. 

 

I fiori si macchiano di sangue… Oh 

lontana, lontana, in questa notte, 

Come una nave con le sue vele 

Nel mare scuro… 

 

Ma presto verrà il tempo    

Arido e melodioso dei papaveri, 

E tu sarai tornata 

Già donna. 

 

 

Love (Translated by Carlo L. Golino)

 

The moon crowned by daisies Smiles 

within your weak pretty eyes,     

Silver roebucks 

Play in the heavens’ glades. 

 

The flowers are stained with blood… 

O far, far away, through the night, 

Like a ship with its sails 

On the dark sea… 

 

But soon the time of poppies, 

Dry, melodious will come, 

And you will have returned  

A woman now. 

Bertolucci, Attilio. (2021). In Carlo L. Golino (Ed.), Contemporary Italian Poetry: An Anthology (pp. 98-101). Berkeley: University of California Press. 

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