Ecco vicine o bella Tigre (Claudio Monteverdi)

Ecco vicine, o bella Tigre, l’hore
che del tuo sole mi nasconda i rai:
ah che l’anima mia non sentì mai,
meglio che del partir, le tue dimore!

Fuggimi pur con sempiterno errore:
sotto straniero ciel, ovunque sai
che, quanto più peregrinando vai,
cittadina ti sento in mezzo al core.

Ma potess’io seguir, solingo errante,
o sia per valli, o sia per monti o sassi,
l’orme del tuo bel pié leggadre e sante;

ch’andrei là dove spiri e dove passi,
con la bocca e col cor, devoto amante,
baciando l’aria ed adorando i passi.

So now the time has come, o pretty Tigress
that hides me from your eyes’ so sunny rays:
ah, how my soul has never felt your presence
so strongly as it now does with your absence!

Flee from me and forever roam,
under foreign skies, but know
that the further you wander the more
I feel you to live here in the centre of my heart.

Could I but follow, a desolate pilgrim,
through valleys, woods and mountains,
the cherished, graceful tracks of your fair footsteps;

I would go where you breathe and where you walk,
and with my mouth and heart, a devoted lover,
I’d kiss the air and worship those fair steps.