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Torquato Tasso Quotes
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Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the Siege of Jerusalem. Tasso suffered from mental illness and died a few days before he was due to be crowned on the Capitoline Hill as the king of poets by the Pope. His work was widely translated and adapted, and until the beginning of the 20th century, he remained one of the most widely read poets in Europe. Wikipedia  

✵ 11. March 1544 – 25. April 1595
Torquato Tasso photo
Torquato Tasso: 94 quotes6 likes

Torquato Tasso Quotes

“Chance in uncertain, fortune double-faced,
Smiling at first, she frowneth in the end:
Beware thine honor be not then disgraced,
Take heed thou mar not when thou think'st to mend.”

Torquato Tasso

Giunta è tua gloria al sommo e per lo innanzi
Fuggir le dubbie guerre a te conviene,
Ch' ove tu vinca sol di stato avvanzi
Nè tua gloria maggior quindi diviene;
Mal' Imperio acquii'tato e prefo dianzi
El' onor perdi, se 'l contrario avviene.
Canto II, stanza 67 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“For shield and mail are less secure defence
To the bare breast than holy innocence.”

Torquato Tasso

Difesa miglior, ch'usbergo e scudo,
È la santa innocenza al petto ignudo.
Canto VIII, stanza 41 (tr. Alex. Cuningham Robertson)
Variant translation: Better defence than shield or breastplate, is holy innocence to the naked breast!
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“My torments easy, full of sweet delight,
If this I could obtain,—that breast to breast
Thy bosom might receive my yielded sprite.”

Torquato Tasso

O fortunati miei dolci martiri!
S'impetrerò che giunto seno a seno,
L'anima mia nella tua bocca io spiri.
Canto II, stanza 35 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Armida smiles to hear, but keeps her gaze
fixed on herself, love's labours to behold.
Her locks she braided and their wanton ways
in lovely order marshalled and controlled.
She wound the curls of her fine strands with sprays
of flowers, like enamel worked on gold,
and made the stranger rose join with her pale
breast's native lily, and composed her veil.”

Torquato Tasso

Ride Armida a quel dir: ma non che cesse
Dal vagheggiarsi, o da' suoi bei lavori.
Poichè intrecciò le chiome, e che ripresse
Con ordin vago i lor lascivi errori,
Torse in anella i crin minuti, e in esse,
Quasi smalto su l'or, consparse i fiori:
E nel bel sen le peregrine rose
Giunse ai nativi giglj, e 'l vel compose.
Canto XVI, stanza 23 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Modesty restrains weak love,
but it is a weak bridle to powerful love.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Act V, scene i.
Aminta (1573)

“Now don't you know how woman is made?
She flees, and fleeing wants to be caught;
she denies, and denying wants to be carried off;
she fights, and fighting wishes to be vanquished.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Hor, non sai tu, com'è fatta la donna?
Fugge, e fuggendo vuol, che altri la giunga;
Niega, e negando vuol, ch'altri si toglia;
Pugna, e pugnando vuol, ch'altri la vinca.
Act II, scene ii.
Aminta (1573)

“You know the world delights in lovely things,
for men have hearts sweet poetry will win,
and when the truth is seasoned in soft rhyme
it lures and leads the most reluctant in.”

Torquato Tasso

Là corre il mondo, ove più versi
Di sue dolcezze il lusinghier Parnaso;
E che 'l vero condito in molli versi,
I più schivi allettando ha persuaso.
Canto I, stanza 3 (tr. Anthony Esolen)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Eròtimo cries: 'Not science (I am sure)
nor my poor mortal hands here work your cure.”

Torquato Tasso

Grida Erotimo allor: l'arte maestra
Te non risana, o la mortal mia destra.
Canto XI, stanza 74 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Woman, a thing changeable in nature,
more than whistles in the wind and more than the tip
of a supple stalk of wheat.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Femina, cosa mobil per natura,
Più che fraschetta al vento, e più che cima
Di pieghevole spica.
Act I, scene ii. Compare: "Varium et mutabile semper femina", Virgil, Aeneid, 4.569.
Aminta (1573)

“With equal rage, as when the southern wind,
Meeteth in battle strong the northern blast.”

Torquato Tasso

Canto IX, stanza 52 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“In what a narrow circuit, among what
abandoned solitudes your fame lies bound!
Amid vast seas your island earth is shut,
though "vast" or "ocean", or what words resound
to name that sea, are idle names and fond,
for what it is: a shallow bog, a pond.”

Torquato Tasso

In che picciolo cerchio, e fra che nude
Solitudini è stretto il vostro fasto!
Lei, come isola, il mare intorno chiude;
E lui, ch'or Ocean chiamate or vasto,
Nulla eguale a tai nomi ha in sè di magno;
Ma è bassa palude, e breve stagno.
Canto XIV, stanza 10 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“The time for work is while the sun's light shines,
but every living thing finds peace at night.”

Torquato Tasso

Tempo è da travagliar mentre il sol dura;
Ma nella notte ogni animale ha pace.
Canto VI, stanza 52 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“You, Honor, you first veiled
The fountains of delight,
Denying those waves to the thirsting lovers.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Tu prima, Onor, velasti
La fonte dei diletti,
Negando l'onde a l'amorosa sete.
Act I, Choro, line 358.
Aminta (1573)

“Black was this queen as jet, yet on her eyes
Sweet loveliness in black attired lies.”

Torquato Tasso

Bruna e si, ma il bruno il bel non toglie.
Canto XII, stanza 21 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Yield, and sufficient glory let it be
to have it said that you once fought with me.”

Torquato Tasso

Renditi vinto, e per tua gloria basti
Che dir potrai che contra mie pugnasti.
Canto VI, stanza 32 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“The way to honor, way to safety is.”

Torquato Tasso

La via d'onor della salute è via.
Canto XX, stanza 110 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“The world grows old,
and growing old, withers away.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Il mondo invecchia,
E invecchiando intristisce.
Act II, scene ii.
Aminta (1573)

“For what the most neglects, most curious prove,
So Beauty's helped by Nature, Heaven, and Love.”

Torquato Tasso

Canto II, stanza 18 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“I'll know his inmost aims and (doubt me not)
extract the guarded mysteries of his mind.”

Torquato Tasso

Vantomi in lui scoprir gl'intimi sensi,
E i secreti pensier trargli del petto.
Canto XVIII, stanza 59 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Like as the wind, stopped by some wood or hill,
Grows strong and fierce, tears boughs and trees in twain,
But with mild blasts, more temperate, gentle, still,
Blows through the ample field or spacious plain;
Against the rocks as sea-waves murmur shrill,
But silent pass amid the open main:
Rinaldo so, when none his force withstood,
Assuaged his fury, calmed his angry mood.”

Torquato Tasso

Qual vento a cui s'oppone o selva o colle,
Doppia nella contesa i soffj e l'ira;
Ma con fiato più placido e più molle
Per le campagne libere poi spira.
Come fra scoglj il mar spuma e ribolle:
E nell'aperto onde più chete aggira.
Così quanto contrasto avea men saldo,
Tanto scemava il suo furor Rinaldo.
Canto XX, stanza 58 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Newborn Love has short wings. He can scarcely
hold them up, and does not spread them out to fly.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Act II, scene ii.
Aminta (1573)

“Oh Dafne,
you truly had pitiless pity
when you stayed my dart.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

Dispietata pietate
Fù la tua veramente, ò Dafne, allhora,
Che ritenesti il dardo.
Act III, scene ii.
Aminta (1573)

“What you wish, you may.”

Torquato Tasso Aminta

S'ei piace, ei lice
Act I, Chorus.
Aminta (1573)