Two Lyrics: from Niccolo Tommaseo

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1848
Genre: translation

General Description of I. The Young Girl

Date: 1848
Rhyme: [varying]
Meter: iambic trimeter
Genre: lyric

General Description of II. A Farewell

Date: 1848
Rhyme: [varying]
Meter: iambic [varying length]
Genre: lyric

Annotations

Editorial glosses and textual notes are available in a pop-up window. Line numbering reflects the structure of the 1911.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

These translations are DGR's tribute to the distinguished writer, critic, and philologist Niccolò Tommaseo (1802-1874). Written early, in 1848, he published them in a letter to the Athenaeum (10 June 1874). His note accompanying the translations is a deft and touching acknowledgment that Tommaseo was both a poet and a patriot (he was active in the 1848 revolution). At the same time, it intimates that Tommaseo's political passions may have obscured his poetical accomplishments, which the translations are meant to expose.

DGR translates two poems from Tommaseo's Confessioni (1836), which is the edition he must have used. Both titled “Ad Altra” by Tommaseo, the first begins “Come fanciul che piange”, the second “T'arrisi, ti compiansi: e dal tuo labbro”. The poems are numbered XXIX and XXX in Tommaseo's book.

Printing History

First published by DGR in the Athenaeum of 13 July 1874 and collected thereafter. No manuscripts of the poems are known.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 11-1848.raw.xml