Giuseppe Tartini - Lettere e documenti / Pisma in dokumenti / Letters and Documents - Volume / Knjiga / Volume II

388 Palladio, Raphael and a hundred more Smiths bringing honour to you, and you even gave Upon the Seine, on the Danube and on the Ebro To those peoples kings, ministers and leaders. With virtue the concealed seeds boil, And the poetic soil I still behold Luxuriate, it is true, with herbs and plants; But it lacks the right care and a careful hand To uproot the weeds and trim the leaves Of the thick branches, and with the neglected elm Lie widowed the many vines on the ground, That, standing high, would gladly fill At harvest the frothy vats and the year: And what remains, sole heir Of the Italic Lyre, Apollo leaves There on the windy bank of the Danube Tormented languishing, such as of our honour, And of his art that makes him lose heart. Oh let it be again, my Italy, the fair And your dispersed members gathered in one! And let not Italian virtue be an ancient thing. In brief, I have told myself - Tentanda via est, qua me quoque possim Tollere humo. 63 And since you so approve of the path I have set myself upon, I shall also dare to add voctorque virum volitare per ora . 64 Please continue to love me, and to compose for me those sonatas of yours, which due to their indescribable grace and elegance cause the Corellis to be forgotten and bring to mind chapters of Berni 65 and the sonnets of Petrarch. 63 "temptanda via est, qua me quoque possim / tollere humo victorque virum volitare per ora" Virgil, Georgics, III, 8-9. See BSGRT. 64 Ibidem . 65 Berni, Francesco (ca. 1497-1535). Writer, poet and playwright. See DBI.