Due Canti Meridionali – Carol Barnett

Composer: Carol Barnett

Text by: mezzo-soprano, piano

Instrumentation: mezzo-soprano and  piano

Duration: Approx. 8

Date Written:  1989

Composer’s note: Mina Ferraguti, violinist and teacher in Rome, wrote these poems in memory of her husband Mario. He had been the Italian minister of agriculture during World War II and was called “Mario della frutta” by Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, who greatly admired the lovely pear trees in their garden. Mina was also the teacher and mentor of my husband, John Tartaglia, which is how I met her in 1987 and obtained the poems. I have tried to capture musically not only the mood of the poetry, but the spirit of the poet as well, mysterious and a little sad.

text

Texts by Mina Ferraguti; translations by John Tartaglia. Used with permission of author and translator.

Nel grande letto la notte

Ti tengo stretta la mano;

Sotto le palpebre chiuse

passa un ricordo di luce:  

Andavamo un po' trasognati

in mezzo ad un campo di grano

e tu mi tenevi la mano.

Ma mi lasciasti ad un tratto

per cogliere un ramo fiorito

apparso al di sopra di un muro.

Nel grande letto la notte

Ti tengo stretta la mano

si, stretta; che tu all' improvviso

non vada oltre il muro

ove tutto è mistero,

lasciandomi sola nel buio

con un ricordo di luce

sotto le palpebre chiuse.

In the large bed – at night

I hold your hand tightly;

‘Neath closed eyelids

Passes a remembrance of light:

We were wandering a little dreamily

in the midst of a field of wheat

and you held my hand.

But all of a sudden you left me

to pick a flowering branch

that appeared on top of a wall.

In the large bed – at night

I hold your hand tightly

yes, tightly; so that you, unexpectedly,

would not go over the wall

where everything is mystery,

leaving me alone in the dark

with a remembrance of light

‘neath closed eyelids.

**

Quando rinasceremо

saremo un unica pianta,

saremo un unico fiore,  

e avremo dimenticato

di essere stati due.

Quando rinasceremo

saremo un' onda nel mare,

una nuvola in cielo

saremo in un tuono, in un fulmine,

in un suono di flauto;

e avremo dimenticato

di essere stati due.

When we will be reborn,

we will be a single plant,

we will be a single flower

and we will have forgotten

that we were two.

When we are reborn,

we will be a wave in the sea

a cloud in the sky,

we will be in the thunder, in the lightning,

in the sound of a flute;

and we will have forgotten

that we were two.