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lyrics

Non havria Ulysse o qualunqu’atro mai
Più accorto fu, da quel divino aspetto
Pien di gratie, d’honor et di rispetto
Sperato qual i’ sento affari e guai.

Pur, Amour, co i begli occhi tu fatt’hai
Tal piaga dentro al mio innocente petto,
Di cibo et di calor già tuo ricetto,
Che rimedio non v’è si tu n’el dai.

O sorte dura, che mi fa esser quale
Punta d’un Scorpio, et domandar riparo
Contr’el velen’ dall’istesso animale.

Chieggo li sol’ ancida questa noia,
Non estingua el desir a me si caro,
Che mancar non potrà ch’i’ non mi muoia.

…

Not even Ulysses, or someone as wise as he,
Would guess that a face like yours—so full of grace
And honor and respect—such a divine face—
Could bring suffering like the pain you’re causing me.

Yes, Love, your eyes in all their piercing beauty
Have stabbed my innocent breast in the same place
Once nourished and kept warm in your embrace;
And still, you are my only remedy.

Hard destiny makes me act like one who’s been
Stung by a scorpion but still hopes to heal,
Taking an antidote of the same poison.

I am wounded. I ask you only to kill the pain,
But not to extinguish the burning I crave to feel,
This desire whose broken life would break my own.

credits

from Sept Sonnets de Louise Labé (2021), released March 18, 2022

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Thomas Oboe Lee Cambridge, Massachusetts

Thomas Oboe Lee was born in China in 1945. He lived in São Paulo, Brazil, for six years before coming to the United States in 1966. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, he studied composition at the New England Conservatory and Harvard University. He has been a member of the music faculty at Boston College since 1990. ... more

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