“To that creature, being born,
Its birthday is a day to mourn.”

— Giacomo Leopardi , book Canto notturno di un pastore errante dell'Asia

Stato che sia, dentro covile o cuna,
È funesto a chi nasce il dì natale.
Canto notturno di un pastore errante dell'Asia (Night song of a nomadic shepherd in Asia) (1829-1830). Translation by Eamon Grennan, Leopardi: Selected Poems [Princeton University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-691-01644-5], p. 62
Poetry

Original

Forse, in qual forma, in quale | stato che sia, dentro covile o cuna, | è funesto a chi nasce il dì natale.

vv. 141-143
Variant: Stato che sia, dentro covile o cuna,
È funesto a chi nasce il dì natale.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To that creature, being born, Its birthday is a day to mourn." by Giacomo Leopardi?

Giacomo Leopardi 18

Italian poet, philosopher and writer 1798–1837

Elise Broach Masterpiece

Source: Masterpiece

“DON'T MISS LOVE. It's an incredible gift. I love to think that the day you're born, you're given the world as your birthday present.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

Speaking Of Love (1980)
Context: DON'T MISS LOVE. It's an incredible gift. I love to think that the day you're born, you're given the world as your birthday present. It frightens me to think that so few people even bother to open up the ribbon! Rip it open! Tear off the top! It's just full of love and magic and joy and wonder and pain and tears. All of the things that are your gift for being human.

“We’re beings toward death, we’re … two-legged, linguistically-conscious creatures born between urine and feces whose body will one day be the culinary delight of terrestrial worms.”

Cornel West (1953) African-American philosopher and political/civil rights activist

“Even as the Christ-child, in the beautiful Christian legend, is said to have been born on December 25th, so likewise was the Mithraic divinity said to have been born into human form on that same day of the year, which was the winter solstice. This day, or one a few days thereafter, has been commemorated as the birthday of other religious type-figures also.”

Gottfried de Purucker (1874–1942) Author, Theosophist

Source: The Story of Jesus (1938), Chapter 2

“New Year's Day is every man's birthday.”

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist

“Creatures of a day! What is a man?
What is he not? A dream of a shadow
Is our mortal being.”

Pindar (-517–-437 BC) Ancient Greek poet

Pythian 8, line 95-8; pages 162-3. (446 BC)
Context: Creatures of a day! What is a man?
What is he not? A dream of a shadow
Is our mortal being. But when there comes to men
A gleam of splendour given of Heaven,
Then rests on them a light of glory
And blesséd are their days.

“You have no birthday because you have always lived; you were never born, and never will die.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

There's No Such Place As Far Away (1978)
Context: You have no birthday because you have always lived; you were never born, and never will die. You are not the child of the people you call mother and father, but their fellow-adventurer on a bright journey to understand the things that are.