Pleasure
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20. Arcitenens, Caper, Amphora: Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius (Latin).
21. Valentinois: Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI (c. 1475–1507), was made Duke of Valence (Valentinois in French, or Valentino in Italian) in 1498.
22. Seigneur de Brântome: Pierre de Bourdeille (c. 1540–1614), who wrote lengthy memoirs after his travels.
FIRST BOOK, CHAPTER V
1. adieu au grand air: “Farewell in the great outdoors” (French).
2. “Remember the snuffed-out days”: I have translated in the text, for authenticity’s sake, D’Annunzio’s interpretation of Goethe’s poem “Wechsel”—“O ruf’ sie zurücke, die vorigen Zeiten! / Es küßt sich so süße die Lippe der Zweiten, / Als kaum sich die Lippe der Ersten geküßt.” However, I would more closely translate Goethe’s text as “O, call them back, those earlier times! He kissed so sweetly the lips of the second one, the way he had just kissed the lips of the first.”
3. “With great pleasure and delight . . .”: Lorenzo the Magnificent, Canzoni a ballo, Canzone 1: “E’ si vede in ogni lato / Che ‘l proverbio dice il vero, / Che ciascun muta pensiero / Come l’occhio è separato. / Vedesi cambiare amore: / Come l’occhio sta di lunge, / Così sta di lunge il core: / Perché appresso un altro il punge. / Col qual tosto e’ si congiunge / Con piacere e con diletto . . .”
4. mascula: A masculine woman (Latin).
5. Giusto Suttermans: Also known as Justus Sustermans, he was born in Antwerp in 1597 and traveled to Florence, where he became court painter to the Medicis. He died in 1681.
6. semper: “Always” (Latin).
7. Miching Mallecho: In Shakespeare, Hamlet, III, ii, 146: “Marry this is Miching Malicho, that means mischeefe.” Other meanings to be found are veiled rebuke, misdeed, secret act.
8. Ecce homo novus: “Here is the new man” (Latin).
9. No doubt: In English in the original text.
10. haute école dressage: “High school” dressage, the highest form of classical horse-riding, entailing movements that the horse carries out above the ground, such as jumping, or up on its hind legs with forelegs raised in the air (French).
11. Duke of Buckingham and De Lauzun: The second Duke of Buckingham (George Villiers), (1628–1687), is notorious for having killed the Earl of Shrewsbury in a duel in 1668. Links between the Duke of Buckingham and Antoine Nompar de Caumont, duc de Lauzun (1632–1723) are complex. Lauzun was imprisoned at Pignerol in 1671. The Duke of Buckingham attempted to persuade Louis XIV to release him. There are fictional links, too, in Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers (1844) and The Vicomte de Bragelonne (1848) in the section titled “The Man in the Iron Mask,” both play a (fictional) role.
12. Musée secret: “Secret Museum”—poem by Théophile Gautier; the motif of “perfect absence” (of pubic hair) is taken up in greater depth later in this novel (French).
13. Camillo Agrippa: Renowned Renaissance fencer and theorist of fencing.
14. a contre-tierce parry: One of several types of counterparry movements in fencing (French).
15. coulé: An attack action in fencing, where the sword slides against the opponent’s blade (French).
16. “inquartata”: A kind of counterattack in fencing.
17. Barcaccia Fountain: Famous fountain in Piazza di Spagna. It is shaped like a sinking barge; the name literally means “rotten old boat” in Italian.
18. Ave, Roma, Moriturus te salutat: Parody of a gladiator’s salute to the magistrate at games: “Hail, Rome, a man about to die salutes you” (Latin).
19. taffeta: Used in bandaging.
SECOND BOOK, CHAPTER I
1. Lethean bath: Reference to the river Lethe, one of five rivers of the underworld. It is the river of forgetfulness and is associated with the afterlife and the belief in rebirth.
2. Upanishad: “One of four Vedas, sacred scriptures of most Hindu traditions.
3. the Vedas: The oldest known Indo-European religious and philosophical tracts.
4. “Hae omnes creaturae in totum ego sum, et praeter me aliud ens non est”: “I am all this creation collectively and besides me there exists no other being”—from the Upanishad of the Veda, translated into Latin by the French historian and Orientalist Anquetil-Duperron and published as Oupnek’hat (Paris, 1801–1802) (Latin).
5. “I am admitted by nature . . .”: Georges Maurice de Guérin, Journal of Maurice de Guérin (Paris, 1862).
6. “The stars we never long to clasp . . .”: This verse is from Goethe’s poem “Trost in Tränen” (Solace in Tears).
7. “miro gurge”: From Dante, Paradise, canto XXX, 68, a double Latinism. Translated by Cary (1814), Sinclair (1939), and Singleton (1975) as “wondrous flood”; in current Italian it is translated as mirabile gorgo—“wondrous whirlpool” (Latinism used in Italian).
8. Titanomachia: Battle of the Titans.
9. “εuλαβεια”: Eulabeia is generally translated into English as “caution” or “concern,” with older meanings of “religious scruple,” “godly fear,” “devotion,” “dread.” D’Annunzio has translated or interpreted it in Italian as in the text above (Ancient Greek).
10. a contemporary poet: Here D’Annunzio is self-inserting or self-inscribing himself into his work—this is his own poem and undoubtedly the “contemporary poet” is himself.
11. Homer’s liturgy: For Goethe, Homer’s writings were of greater spiritual significance and guidance than the Bible.
12. Callimachus’s capital: Callimachus designed the Corinthian capital (column), decorating it with the acanthus leaf.
13. “The Verse is everything”: “Il Verso è tutto”—verse from a sonnet from D’Annunzio’s poetry collection L’Isottèo, 1886. “O Poeta, divina è la Parola; / ne la pura Bellezza il ciel ripose / ogni nostra letizia; e il Verso è tutto”—“O Poet, divine is the Word / in pure Beauty did heaven place / all of our joy; and the Verse is everything.” Once again, D’Annunzio is inscribing himself.
14. “Lightly and quickly depart”: Ballata 146 by Lorenzo de’ Medici—“Parton leggieri e pronti / del petto e miei pensieri.”
15. the note La: In Italy, as mentioned before, musical notation follows the scheme Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, as opposed to the English and German use of letters (A, B, C, D, E, F). La corresponds to A. Commonly, the diapason, or tuning fork, is set to La or A, and musicians take their pitch from this note.
16. egipane: Mythological. Deity of the woods; equivalent of the Greek god Pan, a satyr.
17. “Pale, yes”: Original Italian “Pallido sì”—allusion to Petrarch’s Triumphi, “Mortis I,” v. 166: “Pallida no, ma piú che neve bianca” (Not pale, but whiter than snow).
18. “hyacinth”: This flower, or the color of this flower, which recurs again later with reference to Maria, is associated with the Virgin Mary, and qualities of prudence, contemplation, constancy, and benevolence.
19. “monsters”: As mentioned in the following line, these are the Sphinx, the Gorgon, and the Siren, all dual-natured monsters, a recurring motif in this novel. Of interest in this sonnet, which represents the attempt to move from perdition to redemption, is the symbolism of the monster. This represents the instinctual realm in human beings, which struggles against the realm of reason and control. This is representative of Andrea’s struggle between carnal desire and higher, more spiritual artistic aspirations.
20. “Plow with sad cries . . . songs of gladness”: From Psalms 126:5: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”
21. DIE XII SEPTEMBRIS MDCCCLXXXVI: On the day of September 12, 1886.
SECOND BOOK, CHAPTER II
1. Schifanoja: Pronounced “SKEEFANOYA”—meaning “escape from boredom,” “avoiding boredom” (Italian).
2. Vignola: Jacopo Barozzi—fifteenth-century Italian architectural theorist; member of Vitruvian Academy.
3. pour en tirer
neuf ou dix muytz d’eaue rose: “To derive from them nine or ten muytz of rose water.” A muytz was a French measure of capacity used in the twelfth century, used for dry or wet substances (wine, grain, etc.), of varying capacity—some instances are cited of tonnes, some of 272 liters. The word more commonly found in Old English is muid (Old French).
4. poet of the Vergier d’honneur: André de la Vigne (born c. 1470), who wrote Le Vergier d’honneur (The Orchard of Honor).
5. beauté sans traits: “Beauty without features.” Madame de Pompadour was noted for her unremarkable looks, which were, however, enlivened by her vibrant personality. (French.)
6. Elissa and Tyre: Elissa (also Alyssa) was a legendary Phoenician princess from Tyre, who established the city of Carthage. Her story is recounted by Virgil in the Aeneid, where she is named Dido. Ancient Tyre was famed for its purple dye, extracted from the Murex snail; purple Tyrian fabrics were worn by royalty across Europe. It is situated in modern-day Lebanon.
7. Rosa rosarum: “Rose of roses” (Latin).
8. “Thus he distributed the roses and the words”: From Petrarch’s sonnet 245, “Così partìa le rose e le parole,” Il Canzoniere (fourteenth-century Italian).
9. “Story of Nastagio degli Onesti”: In Boccaccio’s Decameron, Day 5, Story 8.
10. turris eburnea: “Ivory tower” (Latin).
11. vas spirituale: “Spiritual vessel.” Reference to the Virgin Mary, who is the instrument and vessel of the Holy Spirit (Latin).
12. “”: Ioploch’ agnameilichomeide—from Alcaeus, fragment 384—“violet-haired, holy, sweetly smiling.” The original verse continues with the word “Sappho.” (Ancient Greek.)
SECOND BOOK, CHAPTER III
1. Adoremus: “Let us adore/worship” (Latin).
2. Termini: Plural of Terminus, a boundary stone or post.
3. genius loci: In ancient Roman times, a genius loci was the guardian spirit of a place.
4. quattrocento: The fifteenth century (Italian).
5. escutcheon: A shield portraying a coat of arms.
6. alerion: An eagle, used as a symbol in heraldry.
7. Obermann’s words: From Selections from Letters to a Friend: Novel by Étienne Pivert de Senancour (1770–1846), translated and republished in 1901. “Unhappy in the years of joy, what can I expect from future years? I am like those old men from whom all things have taken flight; but more unfortunate than they, I have lost everything long before I have myself reached the consummation of life.”
8. chryselephantine: Made of gold and ivory.
SECOND BOOK, CHAPTER IV
1. Luigi Rameau’s gavotte: Some critics believe this to refer to Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) and this gavotte to derive from his ballet Naïs (1749). Others believe that this gavotte and this composer are sheer invention on the part of D’Annunzio.
2. punctum saliens: The essential or most notable point (Latin).
3. Memling: The German-born painter, Hans Memling (c. 1430–August 1494).
4. Be simple as a dove: D’Annunzio has inverted the original quote from Matthew 10:16, which has been variously translated in different versions of the Bible; one of these, in its full extent, is “Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves: therefore be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”
5. Silver key of the fountain of tears: Percy Bysshe Shelley, “A Fragment: To Music,” 1817.
6. such as dreams are made on: In English in the original text. From William Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 4, scene 1, 148–58.
7. This allegory: The passage in the text I translated from D’Annunzio’s interpretation of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “An Allegory” (1824), which reads as follows: “I. A portal as of shadowy adamant / Stands yawning on the highway of the life / Which we all tread, a cavern huge and gaunt; / Around it rages an unceasing strife / Of shadows, like the restless clouds that haunt / The gap of some cleft mountain, lifted high / Into the whirlwinds of the upper sky. / II. And many pass it by with careless tread, / Not knowing that a shadowy . . . / Tracks every traveller even to where the dead / Wait peacefully for their companion new; / But others, by more curious humour led, / Pause to examine;—these are very few, / And they learn little there, except to know / That shadows follow them where’er they go.”
8. “Who ever lov’d, that lov’d not at first sight?”: In English in the original.
9. Monte Cassino: Montecassino Abbey is a Benedictine monastery founded in approximately A.D. 529 by Saint Benedict, on the mountain Monte Cassino, about eighty miles south of Rome. It has had a turbulent history, having been destroyed and rebuilt several times, and is now a national monument. It houses a five-thousand-reed organ.
10. ostensorium: The ostensorium, also called ostensory or monstrance, is a vessel used to display the host (Blessed Sacrament), made of gold, silver, brass, or copper. It usually takes the form of a sun emitting rays.
11. each pond seemed . . . undulating there: From Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “To Jane: The Recollection” (1822), stanza 5: “We paused beside the pools that lie / Under the forest bough,— / Each seemed as ’twere a little sky / Gulfed in a world below; / A firmament of purple light / Which in the dark earth lay, / More boundless than the depth of night, / And purer than the day— / In which the lovely forests grew, / As in the upper air, / More perfect both in shape and hue / Than any spreading there.”
12. And delicate views . . . gentler than the one above: The rest of this paragraph also echoes Shelley’s poem, as it continues in the same stanza.
13. And forget me, for I can never Be thine!: In English in the original. From a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Magnetic Lady to Her Patient” (1822).
THIRD BOOK, CHAPTER I
1. Amie avec les hanches: “Female friend with hips” (French).
2. Claudio Lorenese: Claude Lorrain (Gellée) (c. 1600–1682), also called le Lorrain, Claudio Lorenese, or Claude. A French painter who lived mostly in Italy and was noted for his landscapes full of harmony and light.
3. demi-mondaines: Literally, “half-world”; referring to women in the late nineteenth century who were generally divorced or single, and led an active social life supported by rich lovers (French).
4. Gratulor tibi!: “I congratulate you” (Latin).
5. O douce barbe feminine: “O sweet feminine beard” (French).
6. le drap de la blonde qui dort: “The sheet of the sleeping blonde” (French).
7. Philippe de Bourgogne: Philippe III de Bourgogne, Duke of Burgundy (1396–1467), founded the Order of the Golden Fleece.
8. sans plume et sans duvet: “Without feathers and without down” (French).
9. Anabasis: Term stemming from the retreat of Greek mercenaries in Asia Minor, described in the Anabasis of Xenophon; a difficult, perilous military retreat.
10. speculum voluptatis: “Mirror of pleasure” (Latin).
11. voluptatis ocellus: “The little eye of pleasure” (Latin).
12. Breviarium Arcanum: “Secret/mysterious breviary” (Latin).
13. cabinets particuliers: A private room where a man could meet his lover (French).
14. we will not have to resign ourselves: “As for women, there is no indication that women of any class were admitted to the Caffe Greco.” Margaret Farrand Thorp, “Literary Sculptors in the Caffe Greco,” American Quarterly 12, no. 2, pt. 1 (Summer 1960), p. 172.
15. Caffè di Roma: D’Annunzio is undoubtedly referring to the Caffè Greco in Via de’ Condotti, a gathering place of intellectuals and artists, which he often frequented (and which still exists). As women were not encouraged to visit the caffè, Andrea Sperelli would have to “resign” himself to the erotic stimulation of a painting. Many artworks did not survive after the 1890s, so it is unclear whether the two paintings (Judith and the Bather) actually exist. However, one painting portrays a woman in scanty garments sitti
ng next to a waterfall.
16. I love you more . . . : In English in the original.
17. keepsake: In English in the original.
18. Adolphus Jeckyll: It is commonly accepted by critics that this figure is based on Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
19. Sibylla palmifera: “Palm-bearing sibyl” (prophetess). Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted a picture by this name. (Latin.)
20. Madonna of the Lily: This could represent Rossetti’s painting Ecce Ancilla Domini, in which the handmaiden of the Lord is shown with a lily stalk in her hand.
21. in Boccaccio’s story: Decameron, Day 4, Story 5.
22. Who would have thought: In the original, this sentence is in English, but in an English so distorted I deemed it better to correct it, since an Englishwoman, such as Clara Green is, would not speak in such stilted, incorrect language. The original text reads: “Who would have thought we should stand again together, Andrew.”
23. white rose: In English in the original.
24. Love me this evening, Andrew!: In English in the original.
25. Ecce: “Behold!”; “Here is” (Latin).
26. Ancilla Domini, Sibylla palmifera, candida puella: “Handmaiden of the Lord, Palm-bearing sibyl, pure girl.” Could once again be a reference to Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s painting Sibylla palmifera and his sonnet by the same title, and his painting Ecce Ancilla Domini. (Latin.)
27. Ora pro nobis: “Pray for us.” Response during the litany in church, directed at the Virgin Mary. (Latin.)
28. chica pero guapa: Small but pretty (Spanish).
29. Pinturicchio: The fifteenth-century painter Bernardo di Betto, who painted Giulia Farnese, the mistress of Pope Alexander VI, above a door in the pope’s apartments in the Vatican City. This fresco was considered scandalous and blasphemous, as it depicted Giulia as the Madonna holding the baby Jesus, and the pope holding the baby’s foot.