Come Un Bel Dì Di Maggio Lyrics in English Franco Corelli

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Below, I translated the lyrics of the song Come Un Bel Dì Di Maggio by Franco Corelli from Italian to English.

Like a lovely May day

With a kiss of wind

And a caress of light

That fades in the sky

With the kiss of a rhyme

A caress of poetry

I climb the final summit

Of my life

The sphere that moves

For every human fate

Already draws me near

To the hour of death

And maybe before the last

My stanza is done

The headsman will tell me

Life's end

So be it! Stanza, final goddess!

Still give your poet

The blazing idea

The usual flame

I, to you, while you vivid

Flow from my heart

Will give as rhyme

The icy breath of a

Dying man

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Imagine a brilliant spring morning in May: a soft wind kisses the earth, sunlight caresses the sky, and everything feels alive. Come un bel dì di maggio begins with this radiant image, only to reveal that we are hearing the final reflections of a condemned poet—Andrea Chénier—awaiting execution during the French Revolution. In lush, soaring phrases sung here by the legendary Franco Corelli, the poet compares the fleeting beauty of that May day to the brevity of human life. Each tender "kiss" of rhyme and "caress" of poetry lifts him to what he calls "the highest peak of my existence," even as the march of fate pulls him toward death.

The aria’s power lies in this breathtaking contrast: incandescent artistic inspiration glowing against the dark certainty of the guillotine. Chénier begs his "last goddess"—his Muse—for one final, dazzling idea so he can pour out a last verse before the executioner arrives. In his plea we feel the unbreakable bond between art and life: though his body is moments from extinction, creativity still blazes within him. The song is both a hymn to beauty and a brave farewell, reminding us that even at the edge of oblivion the human spirit can burn with poetry, passion, and hope.

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Franco Corelli Come Un Bel Dì Di Maggio Lyrics