Journal of Italian Translation - Brooklyn College - Academic Home ...

Better advised, and freely,
Has sent an army of brave troops to fight,
There’s one that shines so bright.
Through perils let him stay:
Loved both by Mars and Liberty, his name
Shall ever live, if he wends not his way
Back to enslaving yoke and courtly shame.
Tusiani/Alfieri 213
FOURTH ODE
(General Washington)
I
You, who did snatch the lightning from the sky
In your still verdant age,
And who, with even greater courage and
No lesser genius, stole the thundering rage
Not from the good that die
But from an earthly Jove’s unworthy hand,
Ruling a strong man’s land;
A deathless demigod, though living still,
O Franklin, father, soul, mind, referee
Of new-born liberty:
Escort my song, my hidden hopes fulfill;
Into this breast instill
Drama of heavenly fire
Whose every secret utterly you knew,
So that, if no man’s praise can make you higher,
One I may sing who’s Second but to you.
II
But where is now my fancy’s fiery wheel
Suddenly taking me?
Tenarian chasms—look!—before my sight
Seem now wide open, free,
To every heart of steel
Ready to plunge into their endless night.
Breaking for me the right
Of the abyss, Apollo bids me go:
The dire three-headed mastiff and the harsh
Boatman of the black marsh
I leave behind, and bliss once more I know
Where darts of horrid woe
No longer pierce the air:
I tread the banks that languorous Lethe laves,