Verdi: Deh, pietoso, oh Addolorata
Christine Lyons and Will Crutchfield
Gretchen’s heart-rending prayer to the Mater Dolorosa in Part One of Goethe’s Faust inspired countless composers, including Schubert, Carl Loewe, and Hugo Wolf. Verdi set it in an Italian translation probably made by his friend Luigi Balestra (1808-1863), a fellow-townsman of Busseto. It was part of the young composer’s very first published music, the collection of six songs published in Milan in 1838.
Deh, pietoso, oh Addolorata,
China il guardo al mio dolore;
Tu, una spada fitta in core,
Volgi gl'occhi desolata
Al morente tuo figliuol.
Quelle occhiate, i sospir vanno
Lassù al padre e son preghiera
Che il suo tempri ed il tuo affanno.
Come a me squarcin le viscere
Gli insoffribili miei guai
E dell'ansio petto i palpiti
Chi comprendere può mai?
Di che trema il cor? Che vuol?
Ah! tu sola il sai, tu sol!
Sempre, ovunque il passo io giro,
Qual martiro, qual martiro
Qui nel sen porto con me!
Solitaria appena, oh, quanto
Verso allora, oh, quanto pianto
E di dentro scoppia il cor.
Sul vasel del finestrino
La mia lacrima scendea
Quando all'alba del mattino
Questi fior per te cogliea,
Ché del sole il primo raggio
La mia stanza rischiarava
E dal letto mi cacciava
Agitandomi il dolor.
Ah, per te dal disonore,
Dalla morte io sia salvata.
Deh, pietoso al mio dolore
China il guardo, oh Addolorata!
Ah, in pity, Mother of Sorrows,
Look down upon my pain;
You, your heart pierced as by a sword,
Turn your desolate eyes
To your dying Son.
Those glances, those sighs
Rise to the Father and become prayers
That comfort your suffering and His.
How my body is lacerated
By my unbearable suffering,
The pounding of my anxious heart -
Who can comprehend it?
What makes my heart tremble, what it wants?
You, you alone can know.
Always, wherever I turn my steps,
What martyrdom, what martyrdom
I carry with me here in my breast!
No sooner am I alone,
How many tears I shed!
And my heart breaks within me.
On the sill of my little window,
My tears fell
When at the dawn of day
I gathered these flowers for you,
For the first ray of sun
Lit my chamber...
And drove me from my bed,
Agitating my despair.
Ah, may you save me
From death and shame!
I pray, in pity for my grief,
Incline to me, Mother of Sorrows!