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If that proud back must forever sustain that mountain--since it pleased him to aspire to rule the earth--and now bent down with weight, licked by hot flames, ringed in by the waters, he cries, feels scorched, endures the bitter skies, surely it's right present joy make up for past grief--Typhon born for great deeds, lies in the earth; it's wrong that time destroy such dreams. Now he receives his reward: a long and beautifully woven story of lost hope creates pleasure out of having known pain. If in the gods there is true splendour, he'd not yield the burden whose prize was bliss--not for that world ancient Atlas now sustains. |
An image of the Italian text from Visconti's 1840 edition |
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Notes: From V C:100. See also B A2, 4, 57; R XIIII:47. Translations: Roscoe 97; Thérault 191-2. In response to a sonnet by Luigi Tansillo ("Animoso, superbo, empio Gigante ... " (reprinted Thérault 246-7). Tansillo and Vittoria both lived on Ischia during very late 1520's. VC alludes to Giovo's Life of Pescara. Key |
