Petrarch, Il Canzoniere, #126.
Lecture Topics:- The lady's divine appearance
- Love everlasting
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1 Clear, sweet fresh water
2 where she, the only one who seemed
3 woman to me, rested her beautiful limbs:
4 gentle branch where it pleased her
5 (with sighs, I remember it)
6 to make a pillar for her lovely flank:
7 grass and flowers which her dress
8 lightly covered,
9 as it did the angelic breast:
10 serene, and sacred air,
11 where Love pierced my heart with eyes of beauty:
12 listen together
13 to my last sad words.
14 If it is my destiny
15 and heaven works towards this,
16 that Love should close these weeping eyes,
17 let some grace bury
18 my poor body amongst you,
19 and the soul return naked to its place.
20 Death would be less cruel
21 if I could bear this hope
22 to the uncertain crossing:
23 since the weary spirit
24 could never in a more gentle harbour,
25 or in a quieter grave,
26 leave behind its troubled flesh and bone.
27 Perhaps another time will come,
28 when the beautiful, wild, and gentle one
29 will return to this accustomed place,
30 and here where she glanced at me
31 on that blessed day
32 may turn her face yearning and joyful,
33 to find me: and, oh pity!,
34 seeing me already earth
35 among the stones, Love will inspire her
36 in a manner such that she will sigh
37 so sweetly she will obtain mercy for me,
38 and have power in heaven,
39 drying her eyes with her lovely veil.
40 A rain of flowers descended
41 (sweet in the memory)
42 from the beautiful branches into her lap,
43 and she sat there
44 humble amongst such glory,
45 covered now by the loving shower.
46 A flower fell on her hem,
47 one in her braided blonde hair,
48 that was seen on that day to be
49 like chased gold and pearl:
50 one rested on the ground, and one in the water,
51 and one, in wandering vagary,
52 twirling, seemed to say: 'Here Love rules'.
53 Then, full of apprehension,
54 how often I said:
55 'For certain she was born in Paradise.'
56 Her divine bearing
57 and her face, her speech, her sweet smile
58 captured me, and so separated me,
59 from true thought
60 that I would say, sighing:
61 'How did I come here, and when?'
62 believing I was in heaven, not there where I was.
63 Since then this grass
64 has so pleased me, nowhere else do I find peace.
65 Song, if you had as much beauty as you wished,
66 you could boldly
67 leave this wood, and go among people.
44: "humble amongst such glory": — A "glory" was the assemblage of light beams, clouds, angels, cherubs, etc. that surrounded an image of the Virgin Mary Ascended to Heaven.