Tasso, Il mondo creato
Invisibile ancor la nuda terra / Era dianzi creata, e non adorna, / Quasi novo teatro, e voti i seggi / In cui non sia chi miri, oppur contenda: / Che nati ancora i miseri mortali / Non erano a vederla; e vasta ed erma / Solitudine inculta i campi e i monti / Empiea d’orrore, e le deserte arene. / Non spiegavano ancor l’ombrosa chioma / Gli alberi eccelsi, e di lor fronde e d’ombra / Non facean vaga scena a’ verdi colli. / Non fiorivano ancor rose e ligustri, / E i giacinti, e i narcisi, e gli altri fiori, / Né dipingeano il seno a’ prati erbosi, / Né fean lieta ghirlanda a’ chiari fonti.
(….)
Tasso, Creation of the World
The naked earth was still invisible
and with no ornament when it was made,
like a new theater with empty seats
and with no actors and no audience,
for there were no sad mortals on it yet,
to watch it. An enormous solitude
filled every mountain, every unsown field
with horror, and with fear all barren sands.
No lofty tree displayed its shady locks,
making a festive landscape of green hills
with both its leaves and shade. No roses yet,
no privets, no narcissi as yet bloomed,
no hyacinths, no buds of any kind;
nor was the meadow’s heart happily hued
or the clear fountain gladly garlanded.
(…)