"Why dost thou awake me, o gale" --

Speranza

1760

MacPherson, “Berrathon”, italianised by Cesarotti as "Berato".

This song MacPherson (who’s buried in Westminster Abbey) ascribed to the mythical poet Ossian, who was influential in painting and sculpture.

In “Werther”, Goethe uses his own translation of the Berrathon song and this becomes the main aria, as famously recorded by Schipa.

MacPherson wrote the verse in English, "as if" expressed by a flower.


why dost thou awake me, o gale
I am covered with the drops of heaven
the time of my fading is near
& the blast that shall scatter my leaves
tomorrow shall the traveller come
he that saw me in my beauty shall come
his eyes will search the field
but they will not find me
so shall they search in vain
for the voice of Cona
after it has failed in the field
the hunter shall come forth in the morning
& the voice of my harp shall not be heard
where is the son of car-borne Fingal
the tear will be on his cheek.
The Italian translation by Melchior Cesarotti runs:

o venticello tremulo
par che il fioretto chiedagli
perché mi svegli tu?
il nembo
il nembo appressasi che già m’atterra
e sfiorami domani
io non son più
verrà doman chi mi mirò
pur oggi gajo di mia beltà
ei scorrerà col guardo e campi e poggi
ma non mi troverà

così d’Ossian ben tosto andranno in traccia di Cona
i figli allor che fia tra i spenti
usciran baldi i giovinetti
a caccia nè udran la voce mia sonar su i venti
ov’ è diran dolenti il figlio di Fingal
chiaro nel canto e’l volto bagnerà stilla di pianto.


Massenet's immediate source is of course Goethe's I DOLORI DEL GIOVANE VERTER. "I dolori" expands the passage.

Massenet's librettists aptly reduce it as follows.

We open, as if the flower is expressing:

pour quoi me réveiller
o souffle du printemps
sur mon front
je sent tes caresses
et pour tant bien proche
est le temps
des orages et des tristesses

 The literal translation of this first stanza could thus be:

why dost thou awake me?
air of spring
on my forehead
I feel thine caresses
and therefore well close
is the time
of disgraces and of sadnesses.


 When the thing was presented in Italian in Milan, the Italian translation went:


a non mi ridestar
o soffio dell’april
su di me
sento la carEZZA
ed ahime di gia spunta il di
del soffrir
della tristEZZA

A literal translation for this first stanza could go:

ah, awake me not
blow of April
upon me
I feel the caress
and, alas, the day rises
of suffering
and of sadness.

 Let us now move to the second stanza. Massenet's librettists provide the following as a translation of Goethe's original words:

demain dans le vallon
viendra le voyageur
se souvenant
de ma gloire premiere
et ses yeux
vainement
chercheront
ma splendeur
ils ne trouveront
plus que deuil
et que misère hélas

This could be rendered literally as:

tomorrow, in the valley
the voyager will come
remembering
my first glory

---- [recall this is an imagined soliloquy of a flower -- Malvina, personified -- and later Ossian himself].

and his eyes
vainly
will search
my splendour
they will not find
more than mourning
and misery, alas.


The Italian version of the second stanza goes:


doman ritornerà
da lungi il viator
e del passato ricordarà
la gloria
e il suo sguardo in van cercherà
lo splendor
e non vedrà
più che lutto e dolore

This could be rendered literally as:

tomorrow will come
from far the traveller
and of the past he'll recall
the glory
and his look in vain will search
for the splendour
and he won't see
more than mourning and pain

----

So, let us revise how faithful this is to Macpherson:

why dost thou awake me, o gale

---   the vocative is maintained, as the interrogative form.

I am covered with the drops of heaven

---- this image above is not rendered.

the time of my fading is near
& the blast that shall scatter my leaves

----

that the time of the flower's decay is near is transformed into the imagery of the glory and the sadness. The 'is near' IS kept in both the French and the Italian versions.

tomorrow shall the traveller come
he that saw me in my beauty shall come

---- again, recall that the beauty refers to the flower's beauty.


his eyes will search the field
but they will not find me

---- the eyes will not find the flower.

so shall they search in vain

-------

---- At this point, Macpherson turns to Ossian. This is not evident in the French or Italian versions:

[the traveller's eyes will search in vain]
for the voice of Cona

---- "the voice of Cona" is Ossian. Hence the apparent illogic aspect of eyes searching for a 'voice'.

"after it has failed in the field
the hunter shall come forth in the morning
& the voice of my harp shall not be heard
where is the son of car-borne Fingal
the tear will be on his cheek."

-----

Next: how the first German edition of this (Massenet's 'prima assoluta') kept Werther's idiom. Or not!