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Volume 9 (2003) No. 1

Mauro Calcagno

Monteverdi’s parole sceniche

Text 5
Ottavio Rinuccini, from Prologue to L’Arianna, 1608

Prologo
(Apollo)
Io, che ne l’alto a mio voler governo
la luminosa face e’l carro d’oro,
re di Permesso e del soave Coro
de la lira del ciel custode eterno,
non perché serpe rio di tosco immondo
avveleni le piagge e’l ciel infetti,
non perché mortal guardo il cor saetti,
stampo d’orme celesti il basso mondo.13
Prologue
(Apollo)
I, who rule with my high will
the shining flame and the golden chariot,
king of Permessus and eternal custodian
of the sweet Chorus and of the lyre of Heaven,
not because the winding river of filthy poison
corrupts the banks and infects heaven,
not because a mortal look darts at my heart,
I leave my celestial marks on the low world

Return to: Paragraph 3.4.