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“Ahi possanza d’amor” speaks of the “power of love” to provoke joy and pain, hope and despair.
As stated above, this meditative text ponders the paradoxical nature of love, citing the Greco-
Roman association between sex and death as counterpart or explanation for the abstract character
of love’s effect on human emotions. The speaker begins with a general description of the power
of love, citing its power over his feelings and desires, and ends with a more sequential exposition
of how these feelings lead to a desire for “death.”
The text, in Italian and English translation, reads as follows:
Ahi possanza d’amor, com’in un tempo
E speranz’e timor al cor mi porgi!
Io pur chiegio per lei e mort’e vita,
Ard’ et agiaccio, e taccio e forte grido
Aita al mio perir; poi morte chiegio.
Così servo d’altrui felice aspetto. 84
Ah the power of love, how you give my heart
Both hope and fear at the same time!
Because of it [the power of love] I ask for life and death
I burn and freeze, am silent and cry aloud
For help as I perish; then I ask for death.
Thus, as Love’s servant, content, I wait [for death]. 85
Despite the apparently narrative structure of the poem, Casulana treats the text with a musical
setting that encourages a meditative reading rather than as actions narrated by the speaker. She
does this in several ways. Through usage of Phrygian cadences, Casulana allows the piece to
slide effortlessly through many harmonic regions, granting the piece a meditative quality.
Through rhythmic enjambment, she denies cadences strong closure and ensures forward motion
84 Beatrice Pescerelli, I madrigali di Maddalena Casulana (Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1979), 22.
85 I would like to thank Francesca Savoia for her help with this translation.
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