Al Metauro

Written in July 1578, during his stay at Urbino in the course of many journeys taken that year, the canzone addressed to the River Metauro (first line: O del grand’Apennino) is one of Tasso’s lyric masterpieces. Suffering from feelings of insecurity for months, Tasso created an autobiographical portrait which alluded to the painful experiences of his childhood and youth in a harsh and lofty style. His protests against his adverse Fortune were expressed as follows:

Oimè dal dì che pria

trassi l’aure vitali e i lumi apersi

in questa luce a me non mai serena,

fui de l’ingiusta e ria

trastullo e segno, e di sua man soffersi

piaghe che lunga età risalda a pena. (Rime, 573, 21-26)

[Alas, from the day that I first breathed the vital air and opened my eyes in this light to me never serene, I was subject and sign of unjust and evil, and by that hand I suffered scars that many years have barely healed]

Also on account of the troubles Tasso was experiencing, it is likely that he stopped working on the canzone after the first three stanzas, although the final lines, recalling his mother’s death and Bernardo’s unfortunate destiny, sum up perfectly and almost prophetically an account in verse written on the eve of his confinement at Sant’Anna:

Padre, o buon padre, che dal Ciel rimiri,

egro e morto ti piansi, e ben tu il sai,

e gemendo scaldai

la tomba e il letto: or che ne gli alti giri

tu godi, a te si deve onor, non lutto:

a me versato il mio dolor sia tutto (Rime, 573, 55-60).