“1” by Gabriello Chiabrera

For this week’s selection, I’ve chosen something slightly different from previous weeks: that is, a famous poet’s translation of another famous poet’s work. The poem in question is William Wordsworth’s translation of an epitaph by Gabriello Chiabrera. The poem has no title other than “1,” as it is the first in a series of nine epitaphs of Chiabrera’s that Wordsworth translated:

“1”

Weep not, beloved Friends! nor let the air
For me with sighs be troubled. Not from life
Have I been taken; this is genuine life
And this alone–the life which now I live
In peace eternal; where desire and joy
Together move in fellowship without end.–
Francesco Ceni willed that, after death,
His tombstone thus should speak for him. And surely
Small cause there is for that fond wish of ours
Long to continue in this world; a world
That keeps not faith, nor yet can point a hope
To good, whereof itself is destitute.

Chiabrera’s perspective is that death is an even better state than life, so people should not grieve for those who have died. The narrator does not want his “beloved Friends” to “weep” or “sigh[]” for him, because he is happier now. Death is “genuine life” in his view: it is a place where “peace” is “eternal” and where he can live with endless “desire and joy.” He also makes this point by using allusions to friendship when speaking about death, such as “genuine,” “together,” and “fellowship without end.”

In addition, the narrator declares that there is little that should make us want to live long here on Earth when he says, “Small cause there is for that fond wish of ours/Long to continue in this world…” His reasoning for this is that the world “keeps not faith,” or is full of faithless people, and lacks any optimism for a good future (“nor yet can point a hope/To good”), because, according to Chiabrera, the world is devoid of any good. Therefore death should be a welcome relief, something to look forward to, since this world we live in is so cynical.

Although it is a short poem, it makes big assertions about what death holds for us, and is courageous enough to say that, without a doubt, death is a vast improvement over life. Life really begins when we die, from Chiabrera’s viewpoint. And therefore, what reason do we have to fear death? Neither the dying nor those associated with the dying should lament the act of death. It is a gift, and as with any gift, we should not worry about where it is from, or why; we should merely be grateful for it.