Giacomo Leopardi, Count (June 29, 1798 – June 14, 1837) was an important Italian poet, often considered along with Dante and Petrarch among Italy's greatest.

Early life

Born in Recanati, Italy , he was a son of Monaldo Leopardi, a minor nobleman of a small village in Marches that at the time was ruled by the papacy. Giacomo's mother was the marquise Adelaide Antici, and by all accounts, was a harsh and domineering woman. He grew up in practical isolation, with his father and a few priests as teachers. The father was extremely influential to the poet: perhaps a man of limited practical sense, he lost most of his patrimony in failed businesses, but assembled an expensive and extraordinary library that was opened to the public in 1812.

Giacomo's loneliness, made worse by the formality of family manners (from the age of six, he was made to dress in black like his father), drove him into his father's library, where he read widely. By the age of ten he no longer needed tutors, and by the time he was 17 he had mastered many areas of knowledge. He later referred to this devotion to study as "seven years of mad and desperate study". Nevertheless, it resulted in a great knowledge of classical languages (he learned at least seven languages, including Hebrew), and also history, philosophy, philology, natural sciences, and astronomy. The long periods of study in an unhealthy environment may have contributed to his asthma and scoliosis, and his weak eyesight was attributed to reading by candlelight.

Leopardi began work as a translator (mainly of ancient classical works - notably a version of Horace's Ars Poetica in ottava rima). He also wrote some minor treatises such as a History of Astronomy (1813) and an essay on Essay on the Popular Errors of the Ancients (1815), both interesting works with plenty of curious facts and anecdotes. He also wrote a pseudo-Greek poem (Scherzi epigrammatici). In 1816 he wrote to the Biblioteca Italiana (literary magazine), defending the position of Italian classicists in answer to the famous assertions of Madame de Staël about translations and academic poetry. This was when he is considered to have passed "from erudition to beauty", from study to poetry and other composition, abandoning aseptic philology and the false taste of Arcadia in favor of a fresh neoclassical modern style.

Emergence of the poet

It was during this time (July 1817) that he started writing the Zibaldone , his immense collection of thoughts and verses, which eventually numbered more than 4,000 pages. He also began his correspondence with the Abate Pietro Giordani , whom he had met by sending Giordani a copy of his translation of the Aeneid. His friendship with Giordani, at the time one of the leading literary figures in Italy, proved to be the turning point in Leopardi's life, as it introduced him personally to the intellectual life beyond the narrow confines of Recanati. The correspondence with Giordani, carried out over many years, reveals the growth of Leopardi's intellect, but the proportional depth of his unhappiness with his personal circumstances.

Leopardi's first public acclaim came from two early patriotic canti, written in 1818. The first, All'Italia, is a lengthy (and by modern standards, perhaps bombastic) recounting of Italy's past glories and a call to reclaim them. Its success was not for literary reasons alone, as Italy at the time was highly fragmented politically and partially under foreign occupation. Similarly, in his ode, Sopra il monumento di Dante, the great poet's ghost is called up and shown how low the land has fallen.

In 1819 Leopardi tried to run away from home, but his father discovered his plan and stopped him. His isolation, physical suffering (which included temporary blindness), and the oppression of being confined in his household led him into depths of despair. But out of this dark period the poet, now in his twenty-first year, began to write with greater depth and maturity. In 1819, he wrote six of the early Idilli, including L'Infinito and Alla luna, all of them considered masterpieces of lyric poetry, and the following year wrote another patriotic poem, Ad Angelo Mai.

In 1821, he completed La vita solitaria, often considered the last of the early Idylls, and five long poems that Carducci referred to as Canzoni-Odi and that were published in 1824. He also developed his philosophical theory about pleasure (piacer, figlio d'affanno - pleasure is son to worry, to anguish, and it requires great labor to achieve).

Life beyond Recanati

In 1822 his father allowed him to leave Recanati for a brief stay in Rome, but the poet was unhappy and could not find a suitable job. He was soon back in the palazzo, having lost his faith. The ornate celebrations of the Papacy's temporal power that he had seen in Rome were another disgusting element that prompted his return. Before leaving Rome, however, Leopardi had become well known, and his work was appreciated.

With the composition of his Operette Morali, Leopardi put into his works his saddest philosophical thoughts, and his historical pessimism (rationality as a cause for unhappiness) and his cosmic pessimism (nature as the source of human troubles because it gives illusions -- Ahi Natura, Natura, perché non rendi poi, quel che prometti allor?) were rendered in their complex entirety.

In 1825 he finally left Recanati for Milan, where he started working for an editor, Fortunato Stella. Then he visited Bologna (vainly following the countess Teresa Malvezzi , who fascinated him) and Florence, where he met Alessandro Manzoni (the other great Italian poet of the century), Viesseux, and Gioberti. In Pisa he wrote A Silvia. In 1830 some friends provided him with a regular stipend, which allowed him to finally forget Recanati and establish himself in Florence. Here he fell in love (this time more seriously) with Fanny Targioni Tozzetti (another married woman), but his love was unrequited. In Florence he met Antonio Ranieri , a Neapolitan gentleman in exile, with whom he later visited Naples which his friend suggested would help him with its warm climate. In Naples he discovered a genuine passion for ice cream, the affection that Ranieri's sister Paolina showed him (in the Ranieris' villa Ferrigni on the slopes of Vesuvius), and the valued confidence of Basilio Puoti (the purista). He died of edema in Naples a few months later.

Major works

His major works include the Zibaldone, the Operette Morali (a collection of short stories), and the Canti collection of poems. He held a pessimistic view of nature as a bad mother always on the verge of destroying humanity, while happiness came from the absence of pain (as expressed in La quiete dopo la tempesta where he says "piacer figlio d'affanno" (pleasure son of pain)).

One among his best known poems is L'infinito which nearly every Italian student had to learn by heart:

Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle,

E questa siepe, che da tanta parte

De l'ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude.

Ma sedendo e mirando, interminato

Spazio di là da quella, e sovrumani

Silenzi, e profondissima quiete

Io nel pensier mi fingo, ove per poco

Il cor non si spaura. E come il vento

Odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello

Infinito silenzio a questa voce

Vo comparando: e mi sovvien l'eterno,

E le morte stagioni, e la presente

E viva, e 'l suon di lei. Così tra questa

Infinità s'annega il pensier mio:

E 'l naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare.

Three other poems from "I Canti"

XIV - ALLA LUNA

O graziosa luna, io mi rammento

Che, or volge l'anno, sovra questo colle

Io venia pien d'angoscia a rimirarti:

E tu pendevi allor su quella selva

Siccome or fai, che tutta la rischiari.

Ma nebuloso e tremulo dal pianto

Che mi sorgea sul ciglio, alle mie luci

Il tuo volto apparia, che travagliosa

Era mia vita: ed è, nè cangia stile,

O mia diletta luna. E pur mi giova

La ricordanza, e il noverar l'etate

Del mio dolore. Oh come grato occorre

Nel tempo giovanil, quando ancor lungo

La speme e breve ha la memoria il corso,

Il rimembrar delle passate cose,

Ancor che triste, e che l'affanno duri!

XXV - IL SABATO DEL VILLAGGIO

La donzelletta vien dalla campagna,

In sul calar del sole,

Col suo fascio dell'erba; e reca in mano

Un mazzolin di rose e di viole,

Onde, siccome suole,

Ornare ella si appresta

Dimani, al dì di festa, il petto e il crine.

Siede con le vicine

Su la scala a filar la vecchierella,

Incontro là dove si perde il giorno;

E novellando vien del suo buon tempo,

Quando ai dì della festa ella si ornava,

Ed ancor sana e snella

Solea danzar la sera intra di quei

Ch'ebbe compagni dell'età più bella.

Già tutta l'aria imbruna,

Torna azzurro il sereno, e tornan l'ombre

Giù da' colli e da' tetti,

Al biancheggiar della recente luna.

Or la squilla dà segno

Della festa che viene;

Ed a quel suon diresti

Che il cor si riconforta.

I fanciulli gridando

sulla piazzuola in frotta,

E qua e là saltando,

Fanno un lieto romore:

E intanto riede alla sua parca mensa,

Fischiando, il zappatore,

E seco pensa al dì del suo riposo.

Poi quando intorno è spenta ogni altra face,

E tutto l'altro tace,

Odi il martel picchiare, odi la sega

Del legnaiuol, che veglia

Nella chiusa bottega alla lucerna,

E s'affretta, e s'adopra

Di fornir l'opra anzi il chiarir dell'alba.

Questo di sette è il più gradito giorno,

Pien di speme e di gioia:

Diman tristezza e noia

Recheran l'ore, ed al travaglio usato

Ciascuno in suo pensier farà ritorno.

Garzoncello scherzoso,

Cotesta età fiorita

E' come un giorno d'allegrezza pieno,

Giorno chiaro, sereno,

Che precorre alla festa di tua vita.

Godi, fanciullo mio; stato soave,

Stagion lieta è cotesta.

Altro dirti non vo'; ma la tua festa

Ch'anco tardi a venir non ti sia grave.

XI - IL PASSERO SOLITARIO

D'in su la vetta della torre antica,

Passero solitario, alla campagna

Cantando vai finchè non more il giorno;

Ed erra l'armonia per questa valle.

Primavera dintorno

Brilla nell'aria, e per li campi esulta,

Sì ch'a mirarla intenerisce il core.

Odi greggi belar, muggire armenti;

Gli altri augelli contenti, a gara insieme

Per lo libero ciel fan mille giri,

Pur festeggiando il lor tempo migliore:

Tu pensoso in disparte il tutto miri;

Non compagni, non voli,

Non ti cal d'allegria, schivi gli spassi;

Canti, e così trapassi

Dell'anno e di tua vita il più bel fiore.

Oimè, quanto somiglia

Al tuo costume il mio! Sollazzo e riso,

Della novella età dolce famiglia,

E te german di giovinezza, amore,

Sospiro acerbo de' provetti giorni

Non curo, io non so come; anzi da loro

Quasi fuggo lontano;

Quasi romito, e strano

Al mio loco natio,

Passo del viver mio la primavera.

Questo giorno ch'omai cede alla sera,

Festeggiar si costuma al nostro borgo.

Odi per lo sereno un suon di squilla,

Odi spesso un tonar di ferree canne,

Che rimbomba lontan di villa in villa.

Tutta vestita a festa

La gioventù del loco

Lascia le case, e per le vie si spande;

E mira ed è mirata, e in cor s'allegra.

Io solitario in questa

Rimota parte alla campagna uscendo,

Ogni diletto e gioco

Indugio in altro tempo: e intanto il guardo

Steso nell'aria aprica

Mi fere il Sol che tra lontani monti,

Dopo il giorno sereno,

Cadendo si dilegua, e par che dica

Che la beata gioventù vien meno.

Tu, solingo augellin, venuto a sera

Del viver che daranno a te le stelle,

Certo del tuo costume

Non ti dorrai; che di natura è frutto

Ogni vostra vaghezza.

A me, se di vecchiezza

La detestata soglia

Evitar non impetro,

Quando muti questi occhi all'altrui core,

E lor fia voto il mondo, e il dì futuro

Del dì presente più noioso e tetro,

Che parrà di tal voglia?

Che di quest'anni miei? che di me stesso?

Ahi pentirommi, e spesso,

Ma sconsolato, volgerommi indietro.

References

Origo, Iris. Leopardi: A Study in Solitude. Hamish Hamilton Ltd., London, 1953. Leopardi, Giacomo. The Canti, with a selection of his prose (trans. J.G. Nichols). Carcanet Press, Ltd. Manchester, 1998.

External link

• "The Infinite" and "To Himself" by Giacomo Leopardi (translations by Gilbert Wesley Purdy).
• Several works in English