August 2019
Italian translation of Myfanwy Piper’s libretto for Benjamin Britten‘s opera “The Turn of the Screw“, adapted from the story by Henry James.
The translation was presented as a mock edition of the libretto, and is accompanied by 17 illustrations and a cover design (pencil and digital)
MILES, FLORA
“Tom, Tom, the piper’s son
Stole a pig and away he run.
Pig was eat and Tom was beat,
Tom ran howling down the street.”
[…]
MILES
“Malo: I would rather be
Malo: in an apple-tree
Malo: than a naughty boy
Malo: in adversity.”
[…]
FLORA
“Today by the dead salt sea,
Tomorrow her waxen lids may close
On the plains of Muscovy.
And now like a Queen of the East she lies,
With a Turk to guard her bed,
But next, when her short-lived daylight dies,
She’s a shepherdess instead.
But sleep dear dolly, O sleep and when
You are lost in your journeying dream
The sea may change to a palace again,
For nothing shall stay the same…
[…]
MILES, FLORA
“Quel gran birbo d’un Tommaso
rubò il maial’ da sotto il naso
al bravo garzone, che prese il bastone
e su Tommaso ne fece buon uso.”
[…]
MILES
“Malo: preferisco l’ombra serena
Malo: d’un melo e le sue fronde
Malo: ai canti orrendi di sirena
Malo: di ritorno a care sponde.”
[…]
FLORA
“Oggi sul Mar Morto,
domani vai per piane
dove il giorno è più corto.
Come le regine indiane
hai la fida sentinella.
Ma poi, vita venuta ‘l fine,
ti risvegli pastorella.
Ma ora dormi, mia cara,
la marea si ritira
e il tuo castello riaffiora
dal profondo del mare.”
[…]
