• Bella ch'invecchia, by Anton Giulio Brignole Sale

  • May 10 2024
  • Length: 2 mins
  • Podcast

Bella ch'invecchia, by Anton Giulio Brignole Sale By cover art

Bella ch'invecchia, by Anton Giulio Brignole Sale

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  • Today we read Bella ch’invecchia, by Anton Giulio Brignole Sale.

    This short epigram was composed by a member of the elite of the Republic of Genoa, when it was at the apex of its commercial and banking power in Europe. Part of his surname, Brignole, is well-known to all the travellers that today stop at, or pass by, the second most important station of the city.

    But nothing grandiose here. Just a witty play on the usual, trite trope of love poetry: love enters from the eyes.

    The poet is consoling a beautiful woman distressed by the passage of time. He explains to her that to love you need to see first. And just as the Sun is too bright to be seen during the day, but easier to behold when it is setting; people will be able to see her more and more, and thus love her the better for it.

    The original:

    se non si puote amare
    senza prima mirare,
    bella a che d’invecchiar sì vi dolete?
    Invecchiando più amata anco sarete:
    a rimirar il sol la vista è pronta
    più che nel mezzo dì, quando tramonta.\ The music in this episode is Gaetano Donizetti’s overture to the opera Don Pasquale, played by the United States Marine Band for the album Overtures, Volume Two (in the public domain).
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