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Roland de Lattre (Orlando di Lasso)

The merry fish of virtuosity,
unchallenged as a virtuoso,
last of the great Flemish music masters,
learned his music nonetheless in Italy,
and where if not in Naples?
He toured vigorously all of western Europe
but preferred the northern Italy
although his fixed position was in Munich
on the wrong side of the Alps.
In contrary to Palestrina,
who heroically challenged his misfortunes
when he lost his children and his wife
already in advanced age in the Plague,
remarried and refused to be let down,
Orlande de Lassus, successful always
with 2000 compositions on his conscience
was in latter days seized with melancholy
and found it difficult to get out of that bog,
as if his whole triumphant life of just encores
had merely been a mirage of some self-deception.
Curiously enough, they both died in the same year,
Palestrina quite unbroken by his tragedies,
Orlando Lasso at a loss for all his unbroken successes.

Poetry by Christian Lanciai