Lascia ch'io pianga la cruda sorte,
E che sospiri la liberta!
E che sospiri, e che sospiri la liberta!
Lascia ch'io pianga la cruda sorte,
E che sospiri la liberta!
Lascia ch'io pianga la cruda sorte,
E che sospiri la liberta!
E che sospiri, e che sospiri la liberta!
Lascia ch'io pianga la cruda sorte,
E che sospiri la liberta!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music and lyrics: G.F. Handel, adapted by Peterson
(The song is originally from Handel's Rinaldo.)
From: Eden (1998).
Source of the lyrics: the CD-booklet;
the booklet gives the stanza only once. One correction (thanks to Carlos Pineda for pointing this out): Sarah seems to sing "Lascia ch'io pianga la cruda sorte", where the booklet has "... mia ...".
Much thanks goes to Christine (PhantomKAE@aol.com), who helped me get a better translation than the one I had here before.
The original text in literal translation reads:
Let which me cry, the cruel fate.
And which sigh [or: long for], the liberty.
There is, I think, a difference in meaning between the English words "liberty" and "freedom", a difference which is difficult to express, and it depends on the context which of the two is the best translation. I feel that in this case "freedom" would be better, but I do not know the background of the song.
In readable form the translation would thus be something like this:
Let me weep
Let me weep over my cruel fate,
And that I long for freedom!
And that I long, and that I long for freedom!
Let me weep over my cruel fate,
And that I long for freedom!
Let me weep over my cruel fate,
And that I long for freedom!
And that I long, and that I long for freedom!
Let me weep over my cruel fate,
And that I long for freedom!
The song is also sung by Charlotte Church on her second album Charlotte Church (1999). The booklet of that CD gives only the unique lines of the lyrics:
Lascia ch'io pianga mia cruda sorte,
E che sospiri la liberta.
Il duolo in franga queste ritorte
De miei martiri sol per pieta.
In the third line "in franga" is two words in the booklet, but the arias database gives it as one word: "infranga".
A rough translation of the latter two lines is:
The duel violates these images
I pray for mercy for my sufferings.
This is based on the translation by Mariella Caesar that Jim Waters sent me, and adapted somewhat by me to make it read better. It does not sound completely right yet, but it gives a good idea.
Charlotte actually sings the lines more often, resulting in the lyrics as above given for Sarah's version, except that:
1) that Charlotte really sings "mia" in "Lascia ch'io pianga mia cruda sorte", not "la" as Sarah seems to do, and
2) that Charlotte sings three lines between the above stanzas:
Il duolo in franga queste ritorte
De miei martiri sol per pieta.
De miei martiri sol per pieta.
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