Un'ape esser vorrei, by Torquato Tasso

Today we read Un’ape esser vorrei, by Torquato Tasso.

I should perhaps feel a bit bad inflicting on you minor poems from major poets, but this madrigale from Torquato Tasso is just too delightful in its effortless lightness and perfection.

I will console myself by pointing out that these few verses can be seen as an antecedent for the Baroque sonnet by Materdona that we previously presented. There the stand-in for the poet was a noisy, dirty fly; here it is a nobler and industrious bee.

Tasso would love to be a bee, sucking his love’s nectar. Given the impossibility of stinging her heart, he would settle on piercing her breasts, which would be totally worth it, even if, in doing so, he would be giving up his life.

This madrigal was put to music at least by Pietro Vinci, but I was unfortunately unable to find a recording.

The original:

Un’ape esser vorrei,
Donna bella e crudele,
Che susurrando in voi suggesse il mèle;
E, non potendo il cor, potesse almeno
Pungervi il bianco seno,
E ’n sí dolce ferita
Vendicata lasciar la propria vita. \ The music in this episode is Alessandro Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in D minor, S. Z799, recorded by the Orchestre de chambre de la Sarre (in the public domain).