Oh! se tu fossi meco
Sulla barchetta bruna,
Che al raggio della luna
Vedi pel mar fuggir!

Oh! se tu fossi meco,
Ti rapirei, mio Bene,
Alle infelici arene
Dove dobbiam languir.

Soli [per l'ampio]1 seno
Dell'Oceán [dormente]2,
Soli del ciel tacente
Sotto l'immenso vel,

Libero pianto almeno
Sparger potremmo [uniti]3,
[Lamenti non traditi
Da testimon crudel]4.

E in rammentar gli orrori
Di questa vita oscura,
La tua, la mia sventura,
Ed il commun soffrir;

Stancati vïatori,
Noi chiederemmo al mare,
O porto per posare,
O abisso per morir.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Liriche del Cavalier Felice Romani, Volume 2, Napoli, Tipografia di Francesco Saverio Tornese, 1858, page 37.

¹ Glinka, Hiller: "sull'ampio"
² Glinka: "gemente"
³ Glinka: "lamenti"
⁴ Hiller: "lamenti non uditi/ da testimon crudel,/ non traditi"

Text Authorship:

• by Felice Romani (1788 - 1865), "Il desiderio", subtitle: "Romanza II", written 1824 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804 - 1857), "Il desiderio" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ferdinand von Hiller (1811 - 1885), "Il desiderio", op. 23 no. 6, published 1843 [ voice and piano ], from Sei pezzi per canto = Sechs Gesänge für eine Signstimme, no. 6, Milan: Ricordi / Berlin & Paris: Schlesinger, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846 - 1916), "Ti rapirei!", 1873, published 1873 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Johann Christoph Grünbaum (1785 - 1870) ; composed by Ferdinand von Hiller.
  • Go to the text.
    

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• ENG English (Anne Evans) , "Desire", copyright © 2006, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 89