"A me la vita è male": nota a Leopardi, Canto notturno v. 104

Il v. 104 del Canto notturno, per la struttura latineggiante e la perfetta corrispondenza verbale potrebbe essere il calco del primo emistichio del v. 40 di un’elegia giovanile dell’antiquario, biblista e linguista francese Samuel Bochart (1599-1677). Leopardi, infatti, ne possiede le opere che cita frequentemente nei trattati giovanili.Leopardi owned, and frequently referred to in his early treatises, the writings of the French antiquarian, biblical scholar and linguist Samuel Bochart (1599-1677). It is likely that, as he was drafting his Canto not-turno, Leopardi had in mind a poem composed by Bochart in his youth: the first hemistich of v. 40 of Bochart’s elegy is clearly echoed in v. 104 of Leopardi’s Canto notturno, which retains both a Latinate structure and a word-for-word correspondence with its source