Italian Phrases We Use EVERY Day!® Famous Love Poems in Italian for Valentines Day

Kathryn Occhipinti, MD, for Learn Travel Italian.com

Have you been trying to speak Italian more easily and confidently in 2023?

I will try to help you with this goal by posting a new blog every month in the series “Italian Phrases We Use EVERY Day!”®  With these blogs, I discuss how Italians use their language on a daily basis and in so doing help you to “think in Italian.” 

To speak fluently in another language, it is important to know how to express feelings. And what feeling could be more profound and important than romantic love? The love that we feel for that “special someone” in our lives or for someone we hope to play a major part in our life? Sooner or later, we are all touched by that romantic feeling called “love.”  But, when we have fallen in love, or as the Italians would say, ci siamo innamorati, it may not come naturally to express this love, even in our native language.

Over the centuries, writers have pondered the question, “Che cos’è l’amore?” “What is love?” And while exploring this theme,  poets have not only given expression to their own feelings of love, but  have enabled others communicate eloquently about love as well.  Let’s take a brief survey of  famous love poems, or poesie d’amore and create Italian phrases for our own true loves on Valentine’s Day!

This post is the 64nd in a series of Italian phrases we have been trying out in our Conversational Italian! Facebook group.  If you’d like to read the earlier posts in the series, “Italian Phrases We Use EVERY Day!” just click HERE

Many “commonly used phrases”
about love are from well known 
love poems.
Check them out  in Italian for
Valentines Day.

See below for how this works.

As we all master these phrases, so will you. Try my method and let me know how it works. What sentences will you create with these phrases?

Please reply. I’d love to hear from you! Or join our Conversational Italian! group discussion on Facebook.

The basics of the Italian language are introduced in the Conversational Italian for Travelers textbook and reference books Just the Verbs and Just the Grammar * 

                       found on amazon.com and Learn Travel Italian.com.

The rights to purchase the Conversational Italian for Travelers books in PDF format on two electronic devices can also be obtained at Learn Travel Italian.com.

*This material adapted from the Conversational Italian for Travelers textbook and reference books Just the Verbs and Just the Grammar 

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Over the centuries, writers have pondered the question, “Che cos’è l’amore?” “What is love?” And since the Italian poet Petrarch expressed his great love for Laura in the 14th century, love poems have often taken the form of he used — the sonetto, or sonnet. These “little songs” are 14 lines long and follow a specific rhythm and rhyme scheme. When Shakespeare took up the sonnet in the 16th Century, he changed Petrarch’s form and made it his own; Shakespeare used the sonnet to write some of the most famous lines about love in existence today. Shakespeare’s contemporaries and many poets who have followed still write about love using the sonnet form, and those lines that ring true have been translated into many languages.

Let’s take a brief survey of famous poesie d’amore
and create Italian phrases for our own true loves on Valentine’s Day!

William Shakespeare
Sonnet 116

William Shakespeare is a well-known playwright who lived from 1564-1616. His sonnets were his last non-dramatic work to be published in complete form in the early 1600s. Since that time, Shakespeare’s sonnets, and in particular his Sonnet 116,  have become well-known meditations on the meaning of true love. For Shakespeare, true love is the love between “true minds,” that will not be altered by any circumstance. In the first lines he states, “Love is not love/Which alters when it alteration finds/Or bends with the remover to remove.”

Take a few lines from Shakespeare’s examples of the steadfastness of true love, here translated into Italian, to tell your true love that you will always be there for them. Note: The last line, “ma sarà per sempre” has been substituted for Shakespeare’s final, more dramatic line, “But bears it out even to the edge of doom.”

Il mio amore per te…
è  come un faro sempre fisso, che non vacilla mai.

non è soggetto al Tempo,
non cambia in poche ore o settimane
ma sarà per sempre.

My love for you…
is  like a beacon, always fixed, that never falters.

is not subject to Time,
will not change in a few hours or weeks,
but will be forever.

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Pablo Neruda
One Hundred Love Sonnets: 17

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet and diplomat  (1094-1973) and is famous in Italy and around the world for his poems about love.  Sonnet XVII is one of the most famous of his One Hundred Love Sonnets, and is known by it’s first line, “I don’t love you as if you were rose salt or topaz…”  In this poem, Neruda says most elegantly that love for another cannot be defined or explained but only exist.

Below are a few lines taken from this Sonnet, translated from Spanish into Italian and English. Anyone to whom these lines are spoken is sure to fall in love!

T’amo senza sapere come, né quando, né da dove,
T’amo simplicemente senza problemi né orgoglio:
Così ti amo perché non so amare diversamente.

I love you, without knowing how, nor when, nor from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride.
I love you so because I don’t know how to love any other way.

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e. e. cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in)

The American poet, author and playwright Edward Estlin Cummings published works under the pen name e. e. cummings  and  lived from 1984-1962. He wrote more than 2,500 poems. He favored the use of lower-case letters in his poetry and stretched the bounds of traditional poetic forms.

Cummings’ line, “I carry your heart with me,”  translated into Italian as, “Porto il tuo cuore con me,”  and  is a lovely romantic reference from the first line of his poem. Notice the unusual use of capitalization and punctuation that cummings is known for in this poem, which seems to make one thought rush directly into the next.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go, my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing, my darling)

  i fear

no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet)…

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)

Most everyone knows the first lines to this sonnet, one of the 44 poems of  Sonnets from the Portuguese written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861).  In the first line, Barrett-Browning asks, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Then she continues to answer the question by expressing her devotion to the love of her life as the poem continues.

Sonnet 43 is a tribute to Elizabeth Barrett’s future husband, who she loves so deeply that it “consumes (her) soul and permeates every moment of every day.”  The last two lines, which talk about how her love fulfills her “most quiet need,” are lovely enough to be translated into Italian for anyone who is in love today.

Ti amo fino al punto del bisogno di ogni giorno più tranquill,
al sole e alla luce della candela.

I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

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John Keats
I Cannot Exist Without You

Perhaps the ode to love that best expresses the Italian sensibility was written by the Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) in a letter to Fanny Brawne in 1918.*  The second line of this poetic exhortation is, “Non posso esistere senza di te,” translated  literally as, “I cannot exist without you.” In recent time, this phrase has become part of the refrain for many Italian songs as, “Non posso vivere senza di te,” or “I cannot live without you.” The idea of two lives so intertwined that one person cannot live without the other is a common theme in Italian culture, and maybe that is why these lines translate so easily into Italian.

There are so many lines to choose from in this poem, I have reprinted most of what Keats wrote to his dear love, with the Italian translation for several lines that can be used to express one’s true love on Valentine’s Day.

My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you – I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again – my Life seems to stop there – I see no further. You have absorb’d me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving – I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you. I should be afraid to separate myself far from you. My sweet Fanny, will your heart never change? My love, will it? I have no limit now to my love –…
My Love is selfish – I cannot breathe without you. – John Keats *

Non posso esistere senza di te.
I cannot exist without you

Non posso vivere senza di te.
I cannot live without you

Ora non ho limiti al mio amore.
I have no limit now to my love.

Non posso respirare senza di te.
I can’t breathe without you.

*Hanson, Marilee. “John Keats Love Letter To Fanny Brawne – 13 October 1819” https://englishhistory.net/keats/letters/love-letter-to-fanny-brawne-13-october-1819/, February 4, 2015.

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Buon San Valentino!

Remember a few phrases of love
in Italian from the great poets
for your true love on Valentine’s Day!

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Conversational Italian for Travelers “Just the Grammar” and “Just the Verbs” books: Available on  amazon.com  and Learn Travel Italian.com

Conversational Italian for Travelers “Just the Important Phrases” book downloaded onto a cell phone from www.learntravelitalian.com

Italian Phrases We Use EVERY Day!® How to say, “I feel…” on Valentines Day with “Sentirsi”

Kathryn Occhipinti, MD, for Learn Travel Italian.com

Buon giorno a tutti! How do you feel about Valentines Day?  Is Valentines Day an important holiday for you? Does the thought of Valentines Day bring the same feelings as it did when you were younger?

If you want to express your feelings in Italian this Valentines Day, the verb sentirsi is essential!  This verb is a part of many commonly used phrases in Italian. 

I have been trying to help you to learn Italian by posting a new blog every month in the series “Italian Phrases We Use EVERY Day!”®  With these blogs, I discuss how Italians use their language on a daily basis and in so doing help you to “think in Italian.” 

As I’ve said before in this blog series, I believe that “commonly used phrases” are the key for how we can all build fluency in any language in a short time.

If we learn how to incorporate “commonly used phrases”  when we talk about how we feel in Italian with the verb sentirsi, we will be able to communicate with the same complexity as we do in our native language!

This post is the 41st in a series of Italian phrases we have been trying out in our Conversational Italian! Facebook group.  If you’d like to read the earlier posts in the series, “Italian Phrases We Use EVERY Day!” just click HERE

Many “commonly used phrases” in Italian

start with “I feel” 

and use the verb

Sentirsi 

See below for how this works.

As we all master these phrases, so will you. Try my method and let me know how it works. What sentences will you create with this verb?

Please reply. I’d love to hear from you! Or join our Conversational Italian! group discussion on Facebook.

The basics of the Italian language are introduced in the Conversational Italian for Travelers textbook and reference books Just the Verbs and Just the Grammar  

                       found on amazon.com and Learn Travel Italian.com.

The rights to purchase the Conversational Italian for Travelers books in PDF format on two electronic devices can also be obtained at Learn Travel Italian.com.

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Sentirsi — to feel

The verb sentirsi means “to feel” in Italian and therefore sentirsi is the verb Italians use to describe their deepest emotions. You will immediately notice from the -si ending that sentirsi is a reflexive verb. English, on the other hand, does not consider “feeling” a reflexive activity; so when we English speakers put our emotions into words, we do not use a reflexive verb. Because of this important difference, we will really have to learn how to think in Italian to express our feelings with sentirsi!  

Learning how to use the verb sentirsi is really not all that tricky, though, once you understand the general idea of how to conjugate a reflexive verb.  Just remember to add one of the reflexive pronouns (mi, ti, si, ci, vi, si) before the conjugated form of sentirsi. Then finish the sentence by saying how you feel, just as you would in English. 

Sentirsi has been conjugated in full in the table below. Sentirsi is a regular -ire verb, so its conjugations are presented in green.  The reflexive pronouns that go with each conjugation are in blue. Since we do not use reflexive pronouns with the equivalent verb “to feel” in English, the Italian reflexive pronouns will not appear in the translation.

Sentirsi – to feel

io	mi sento	I feel
tu	ti senti	you (familiar) feel
Lei lei/lui	si sente	you (polite) feel she/he feels
noi	ci sentiamo	we feel
voi	vi sentite	you all feel
loro	si sentono	they feel

 

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Sentirsi vs. Stare

People across the globe commonly talk about how they are feeling. and Italians are no different! Let’s try  to use our newly conjugated Italian verb sentirsi by creating some simple sentences  to describe how we may feel.

From the table above, we can see that the common statement, “I feel…” is, “Io mi sento…” But, of course, we always leave out the Italian subject pronoun, so the phrase that Italians use is conversation is just, “Mi sento…” To complete the phrase, just add how you are feeling after the verb! 

One way to use the verb sentirsi in conversation is to say, “Mi sento bene!” which means, “I feel well!” (Notice Italians do not say, “I feel good,” which is actually grammatically incorrect, although we say this in English all of the time.)

If we remember how to use our reflexive verbs, we know that if we want to ask someone how they are feeling, we can simply say, “Ti senti bene?”  “Are you feeling well?” (By the way, if you need a review of Italian reflexive verbs, please see previous blogs on this topic or our Conversational Italian for Travelers book, “Just the Important Verbs.”)

To have a conversation with one person about another person’s health, we can use the same phrase to relay a fact or to ask a question: “Si sente bene.”  “He/she is feeling well.” “Si sente bene?” “Is he/she feeling well?” 

(Io) Mi sento bene. (Io) Non mi sento bene. (Io) Mi sento male.	I feel well. I don’t feel well. I don’t feel well.
(Tu) Ti senti bene.	Do you feel well?
(Lei/Lui) Si sente bene.	She/he feels well.
(Lei/Lui) Si sente bene.	Does she/he feel well?

You will remember from our last blog about the Italian verb stare that  stare is also used to talk about general well-being, either “good” or “bad,” similar to the sentences above.” Since both stare and sentirsi are used to describe how we feel, the difference in meaning between these two verbs can seem insignificant. But, by convention, stare is always the verb used when greeting someone. And, although sentirsi can be used to make generalizations, the use of sentirsi is more often a specific referral about how we feel, either to a health issue or actual feelings of happiness, sadness, etc.

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Adjectives to Use with Sentirsi

The table below is a list of adjectives that you can use to describe how you are feeling.  Just add one of these adjectives after the words, “I feel…” in Italian, just as you would in English. Remember that male speakers must use the “o” ending and female speakers the “a” ending for these adjectives that refer back to the subject.  If the adjective ends in an “e,” the ending does not need to be changed, of course.

bene	well
contento(a) / felice	happy
male	badly, unwell
nervoso(a) emotionato(a)	nervous excited/thrilled
triste	sad

Some simple example sentences:

Mi sento conteno.	I am happy. (male speaker)
Mi sento contenta.	I am happy. (female speaker)
Mi sento triste.	I feel sad. (male or female speaker)

Notice, that both “contento(a)” and “felice” mean “happy” in Italian.  But when an Italian wants to describe an internal feeling of happiness, the word chosen is usually “contento(a).”  Contento also translates into the English word, “content,” meaning to feel comfortable with or about something. The phrase, “Contento lui!” translates as, “Whatever makes him happy!” 

Also, a note about feeling “excited” about things.  In America, a very common phrase is, “I am excited…” about what I am about to do, or perhaps an event I will attend. In Italy, the word for “excited” or “thrilled” is “emotionato(a).”

Although the Italian word emotionato sounds to the English speaker like “emotional,” the Italian adjectives for emotional are actually, “emotivo(a),” or “emozionale.” Be careful! The Italian adjectives emotivo(a) and emozionale are most commonly used to mean “excited” with a negative connotation.

The words emotionato and emotional, which sound like they should have similar meanings in each language, but do not, are often called, “false friends.” 

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Valentines Day Sayings with Sentirsi

Now that we know how to make sentences with the verb sentirsi, let’s see how we can tell others how we feel on Valentines Day, or La Festa Degli Innamorati, as the Italians call this day. One of the legends surrounding Saint Valentines Day is that San Valentino, a priest in the Christian church who was jailed by the Romans, wrote the girl he loved a farewell love letter and signed it ‘Your Valentine.”  He knew that this lettera d’amore, would be the last he would write to her before his execution as a Christian.

What do you imagine he could have written in this letter?

The Italian phrase for “I love you,” — when talking about love in a romantic way — is easy. It takes just two short words to relay your special feelings for someone: “Ti amo.”  But after that, what do you say? How do you tell someone how wonderful they make you feel when you are with them?

Below are a few expressions that one can use on Valentines day,
some of  which use the verb sentirsi.

Quando ti vedo …mi sento contento(a).	When I see you …I am happy.
…mi sento un uomo fortunato.	I feel like a lucky man.
…mi sento una donna fortunata.	I feel like a lucky woman.
…sento che la mia vita è appena cominciata.*	I feel like my life has just begun.
… sento che il mondo è tutto mio.*	I feel like the world is all mine.

*You will notice from two of our examples above that the verb sentire was chosen for the Italian verb that means “to feel,” rather than the reflexive sentirsi. In these two cases, sentire is used in order to make a general comparison about how one’s feeling relates to something else, rather than to state one’s exact feeling. This type of comparison is called a simile and is used to make an idea more vivid — or in our examples,  more “flowery” and romantic. It is easy to spot a comparison in Italian, because “che” will be used to link one’s feeling to the descriptive phrase.  In English we can translate che into “like.” 

Sentire is used in the following to phrases in our table below as well, but for a different reason.  These two examples use the sentence structure, “You make me feel…” which requires sentire to be used in it’s infinitive form.

Mi fai sentire molto contento(a).	You make me feel very happy.
Mi fai sentire che tutto è possibile.	You make me feel that everything is possible.

If the time “feels right” for you and your Italian love to “officially” declare your  feelings for each other,  you may want to try the important phrases listed here.

Vuoi essere la mia fidanzata?	Do you want to be my girlfriend?
Vuoi essere il mio fidanzato?	Do you want to be my boyfriend?
Vuoi stare insieme a me per sempre?	Do you want to stay together forever?
Vuoi fidanzarti con me?	Do you want to get engaged (engage yourself to me)?
Vuoi fidanzarti con me?	Will you be my fiancée/finance?
Vuoi sposarti con me?	Do you want to get married (marry yourself to me)?
Vuoi sposarti con me?	Will you marry me?

How would you use sentirsi to tell your love how you feel?
Please leave some examples. I’d love to hear from you!

One last note…

Italians do not use the words contenta or felice, to wish each other a “Happy Valentines Day,”  but instead use “buon/buono/buona,” as for other holiday expressions, as in: Buona Festa degli Innamorati!

Click on this blog from expoloreitalianculture.com if you are interested in learning more about the traditions of Valentines Day in Italy.

Buon Festa degli Innamorati a tutti voi!

Conversational Italian for Travelers “Just the Verbs”

How to talk about relationships and love… in Italian!

Kathryn Occhipinti, MD for Conversational Italian for Travelers books

Valentines Day will be here again soon, and so will the need to say, “I love you,” in Italian! For the last couple of years, I’ve focused on finding important phrases  about dating and relationships in Italian when I read Italian novels or watch Italian movies, since these are phrases that are not usually listed in textbooks. Once I find these phrases, I run them by my Italian friends and instructors to see if and how they are really used.  After all, language is a “living thing,” and I’ve always been fascinated by how people use their language.

I’ve managed to piece together the following information how Italians talk about relationships, which is reprinted from my blog where I post what I have been learning for advanced students of Italian.  Italian Subjunctive (Part 4): Italian Hypothetical Phrases of Love.

For these advanced blogs, I typically provide a dialogue or story that uses the theme phrases, and then an explanation of the grammar needed to understand what I have written.  Feel free to click on the link to the blog above to read a dialogue about a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship and learn a bit about the subjunctive mood if you like!

Finally, I will leave a few phrases from Conversational Italian for Travelers textbook and the Just the Important Phrases travel pocket book on  Amazon.com and www.Learn Travel Italian.com   and Amazon.com to help with your Valentine’s celebration!

 

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Talking About Italian Relationships and Love

 

Today in America, we “date,” “go out on a date,” or refer to two people who are “dating,” from the first romantic encounter until they become married. After they are married, they can still have “date nights.” But be careful when translating American romantic experiences into Italian! The English verb “to date” as used in America today to refer to a romantic relationship does not have a literal translation in Italian.

Of course, to “court” a woman was common in past centuries, and the Italian language still reflects this. When a man tries to show he is interested in a woman, the phrase “fare la corte a…” is used from the verb corteggiare or “to court.”

If a woman wants to refer to dating a man, the following phrases can be used:

“Mi vedo un ragazzo.”	“I’m seeing a boy.”
“Esco con un ragazzo.”	“I’m going out with a boy.”
“Il ragazzo con cui ho/avevo appuntamento.”	“The boy with whom I have/had an appointment.”

There is another verb still in use in Italy today that refers to a man seducing, or “winning over,” a woman: “conquistare a… ” If a woman lets herself be “won over” or “captivated” by a man, she can use the phrase, “Mi lascio conquestare a…”

The usual Italian phrases used to refer to two people who have become romantically involved and are getting together regularly before marriage are “to go out with someone”—“uscire con qualcuno”—or “seeing each other”—“frequentarsi.”

Finally, to express a close romantic relationship in Italian, we can use the word “rapporto.” Any relationship in general is considered a “relazione.” But be careful, as an “affair” outside of marriage is also a “relazione,” whereas “affari” refers to more general personal and business “affairs.”

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“Ti voglio bene” is an idiomatic expression in Italian, which translates roughly as, “I wish you well,” or better, “I care for you.”  It originates from the verb volersi, which takes on a different meaning than the verb volere.  The meaning of this verb is not easily translated into English, but is used often in Italy for many different situations.

“Ti voglio bene” is an old expression that is still used for platonic forms of caring and loving among family members and close friends in Italy today. The expression can be used between a boyfriend and a girlfriend and is also used between a husband and a wife. Watch some older Italian movies, and you will hear this expression often!

Mi voui bene?	Do you care for/about me?
Ti voglio bene.	I care for/about you.

 

The verb amare, which means “to love,” is reserved for romantic love—that one true love held between fiancée and fiancé, wife and husband.

Mi ami?	Do you love me?
Ti amo.	I love you.
Ti amo per sempre.	I will always love you.

 

Conversational Italian for Travelers “Just the Important Phrases” (with Restaurant Vocabulary and Idiomatic Expressions)

Available on Amazon.com and www.Learn Travel Italian.com