"My thoughts turn to the day when I felt love
war in me, for the first time, and I said:
‘Ah, if this is love, how it torments me!"
In "First Love," Leopardi reflects upon his first romance and how it made him feel. It is clear that this relationship not only inspired intense feelings for the young Leopardi, but also caused him considerable grief. In this poem, Leopardi explores loss, innocence, grief and love, and how the feelings of affection and bitterness exist paradoxically in the heart of a young man.
Attacked, and conquered, by secret disease,
you died, my tenderest one, and did not see
your years flower, or feel your heart moved,
by sweet praise of your black hair
your shy, loving looks.
In this poem, Leopardi writes about a young woman called Sylvia who has succumbed to tuberculosis. He describes how this "secret disease," led to her demise, describing the cruel loss of life. This death is depicted as a symbol of the poet's feelings of disillusionment and regret in the real world.
"Why are you there, Moon, in the sky? Tell me
why you are there, silent Moon."
This quote is taken from Leopardi's poem "Night-song of a Wandering Shepherd of Asia," in which the poet writes from the perspective of a herder. The herder is in dialogue with the moon in this poem, questioning its existence and using rich symbolism to describe the celestial being.
