Torquato Tasso: Quotes about death

“No need for death,
For to wring two hearts
First faith sufficed and then love.”

Non bisogna la morte,
Ch'astringer nobil cuore,
Prima basta la fede, e poi l'amore.
Act III, Chorus.
Aminta (1573)

“His grace,
Sit nature, fortune, motion, time and place. ]] From whence with grace and goodness compassed round,
He ruleth, blesseth, keepeth all he wrought,
Above the air, the fire, the sea and ground,
Our sense, our wit, our reason and our thought,
Where persons three, with power and glory crowned,
Are all one God, who made all things of naught,
Under whose feet, subjected to his grace,
Sit nature, fortune, motion, time and place.This is the place, from whence like smoke and dust
Of this frail world the wealth, the pomp and power,
He tosseth, tumbleth, turneth as he lust,
And guides our life, our death, our end and hour:
No eye, however virtuous, pure and just,
Can view the brightness of that glorious bower,
On every side the blessed spirits be,
Equal in joys, though differing in degree.”

Torquato Tasso

Sedea colà, dond'egli e buono e giusto
Dà legge al tutto, e 'l tutto orna e produce
Sovra i bassi confin del mondo angusto,
Ove senso o ragion non si conduce.
E della eternità nel trono augusto
Risplendea con tre lumi in una luce.
Ha sotto i piedi il Fato e la Natura,
Ministri umíli, e 'l moto, e chi 'l misura; <p> E 'l loco, e quella che qual fumo o polve
La gloria di qua giuso e l'oro e i regni,
piace là su, disperde e volve:
Nè, Diva, cura i nostri umani sdegni.
Quivi ei così nel suo splendor s'involve,
Che v'abbaglian la vista anco i più degni;
D'intorno ha innumerabili immortali
Disegualmente in lor letizia eguali.
Canto IX, stanzas 56–57 (tr. Edward Fairfax)
Max Wickert's translation:
He sat where He gives laws both good and just
to all, and all creates, and all sets right,
above the low bounds of this world of dust,
beyond the reach of sense or reason's might;
enthroned upon Eternity, august,
He shines with three lights in a single light.
At His feet Fate and Nature humbly sit,
and Motion, and the Power that measures it,<p>and Space, and Fate who like a powder will
all fame and gold and kingdoms here below,
as pleases Him on high, disperse or spill,
nor, goddess, cares she for our wrath or woe.
There He, enwrapped in His own splendour, still
blinds even worthiest vision with His glow.
All round Him throng immortals numberless,
unequally equal in their happiness.
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Such death makes happier end
than conquests of huge realms or infinite gold.”

Torquato Tasso

Felice e cotal morte e scempio,
Via più ch' acquisto di province e d'oro.
Canto VIII, stanza 44 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Cruel Love! You bear our death in murderous vials,
filled now with gall, now with your honeyed treasure—
equally fatal all that you ensure,
whether it be the sickness or the cure.”

Torquato Tasso

Canto IV, stanza 92 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“For little differs death and heavy sleep.”

Torquato Tasso

Dal sonno alla morte è un picciol varco.
Canto IX, stanza 18 (tr. Fairfax)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

“Alike prepared for all fates, at each breath
assured of triumph and contemning death.”

Torquato Tasso

Egualmente apprestato ad ogni sorte,
Si prometta vittoria, e sprezzi morte.
Canto X, stanza 38 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)