The Poems of Giacomo Leopardi

“Freedom is the dream you dreamWhile putting thought in chains again --””

— Giacomo Leopardi

“For if life, once empty of attachmentsand sweet illusions, is a starless winter night,still it’s enough for me of mortal fateand comfort and revenge that I can lie herelazy, lifeless on the grass,watching the sea and earth and sky, and smile.””

— Giacomo Leopardi

“All is mystery except our pain.””

— Giacomo Leopardi

“Fate gave birth at one and the same time to two siblings, Love and Death.””

— Giacomo Leopardi

“So, ignorant of man and of the agethat he calls ancient, and of the descendantsfollowing their ancestors,nature stays evergreen; indeed she travelssuch a long road she might as wellbe standing still. Meanwhile kingdoms fall,languages and peoples die; she doesn’t see.Yet man takes it upon himself to praise eternity.””

— Giacomo Leopardi

“But he’s a fool who doesn’t see how swift the wings of youth are, and how near the cradle lies to the grave.””

— Giacomo Leopardi

“The certain, lonely knowledge [120] that everything is vain but grief.””

— Giacomo Leopardi

“E tu, cui già dal cominciar degli anni sempre onorata invoco, bella Morte, pietosa tu sola al mondo dei terreni affanni[…] chiudi alla luce omai questi occhi tristi […] nel mio sangue innocente non ricolmar di lode, non benedir, com’usa per antica viltà l’umana gente””

— Giacomo Leopardi

“Man is born by labor, [40] and birth itself means risking death.””

— Giacomo Leopardi