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Locked down but not out in Italy

Singing from the balconies! One nice thing about this crisis ... solidarity! “Guess you’re not living like a tourist anymore,” was the funny, truthful and somewhat gut-wrenching message of a friend the day the lockdown in Italy began. Today is day 6. My beloved Italia has been hit hard with the COVID19 epidemic. With the second largest elderly population in the world, the epidemic has meant a disproportionate amount of deaths in the country. So though I haven’t been worried about contracting it myself, this isn’t about me or someone like me who, if contracted it would probably have a sucky couple of weeks and then recover. It is about if someone like me contracted it and then spread it to a person with a complicated health history or an elderly person with a weakened immune system. Eerily orderly: Lines for the grocery store, each person one meter apart In a country with no concept (and no physical room really) for personal space, and in a city with reproachable hygie

Brindisi!

If I could sing opera, this is exactly what I would do!




If you, like I, were curious about the translation, here is what I found:

Let us drink from the goblets of joy
adorned with beauty,
and the fleeting hour shall be adorned
with pleasure.
Let us drink to the secret raptures
which love excites,
for this eye reigns supreme in my heart...

Let us drink, for with wine,
love will enjoy yet more passionate kisses.

With you I can spend the time with delight.
In life everything is folly, which does not bring pleasure.

Let us be happy,
fleeting and rapid is the delight of love;
it is a flower which blooms and dies, which can no longer be enjoyed.
Let us be happy, fervent and enticing words summon us.

Be happy... wine, and song, and laughter beautify the night;
let the new day find us in this paradise.

Life is nothing but pleasure,
as long as one is not in love.
That is my fate...



Italian is amazing.

For other aria translations.

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