Silent Worship

The song "Silent Worship" is a 1928 adaptation by Arthur Somervell of the aria "Non lo dirò col labbro" from Handel's 1728 opera Tolomeo (Ptolemy). Somervell's English-language adaptation is for voice and piano, and it has remained a popular classic in song recitals and home music-making. Other arrangements of Somervell's translation include solo song accompanied by a modern symphony orchestra, and male choir.

"Silent Worship" is featured in the 1996 film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Emma. Although Somervell's English translation was done more than a century after Austen's novel, the original Italian aria was recorded in Jane Austen's own handwritten songbooks.

Musically the song is a simple transcription of the original — with the orchestral parts reduced for piano, one or two slight changes in harmony, and the instrumental ending (postlude) omitted. In the 1996 film Emma, the introduction is also shortened.

The text is treated quite differently in the two versions:

Did you not hear My Lady
Go down the garden singing
Blackbird and thrush were silent
To hear the alleys ringing.

Oh saw you not My Lady
Out in the garden there
Shaming the rose and lily
For she is twice as fair.

Though I am nothing to her
Though she must rarely look at me
And though I could never woo her
I love her till I die.

Surely you heard My Lady
Go down the garden singing
Silencing all the songbirds
And setting the alleys ringing.

But surely you see My Lady
Out in the garden there
Rivaling the glittering sunshine
With a glory of golden hair.

Non lo dirò col labbro
Che tanto ardir non ha.
Forse con le faville
Dell'avide pupille,
Per dir come tutt'ardo,
Lo sguardo parlera
Non lo dirò col labbro
Che tanto ardir non ha.

I will not say it with my lips
Which have not that courage;
Perhaps the sparks
Of my burning eyes,
Revealing my passion,
My glance will speak.

...
Wikipedia