Che farai Melisseo

Jussi Lehtipuu (bass) sings "Che farai Melisseo" by Angelo Notari at Sastamala Gregoriana Festival 2008, accompanied by Michael Fields on theorbo.

Che farai, Meliseo? Morte rifiutati
Poichè Filli t'ha posto in doglie e lagrime
Nè più, come solea, lieta salutati.
Dunque, amici pastor, ciascun consacrime
Versi sol di dolor, lamenti e ritimi;
E chi altro non può, meco collagrime.
A pianger col suo pianto ognun incitimi,
Ognun la pena sua meco communiche,
Ben ch'il mio duol da sè dì e notte invittimi.
Jacopo Sannazzaro, L'Arcadia, XII

"What will you do, Meliseo? Death rejects you
though Phyllis has plunged you into grief and tears
and smiles at you no longer as she did.
So, shepherd friends, let each of you dedicate
verses of nothing but sorrow to me, and laments;
and those who can do nothing else, come weep with me.
Let each man’s tears stimulate my own;
let each communicate his grief to me,
even though mine, unaided, torments me day and night."