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Questa fenice de l’auratapiuma

Questa umil fera, un cor di tigre o d’orsa

Questo nostro caduco et fragil bene

Qui dove mezzo son, Sennuccio mio

Rapido fiume, che d’alpestra vena

Rapid river, coming from alpine source

Real natura, angelico intelletto

Recalling that which Heaven now esteems

Rimansi a dietro il sestodecimo anno

Ripensando a quel ch’ oggi il Cielo onora

Rotta è l’alta colonna e ’l verde lauro

S’al principio risponde il fine e ’l mezzo

S’Amore o Morte non dà qualche stroppio

S’amor non è, che dunque è quel ch’io sento

S’ Amor novo consiglio non n’apporta,

Se bianche non son prima ambe le tempie

Se col cieco desir che ’l cor distrugge

Se lamentar augelli, o verdi fronde

Se la mia vita da l’aspro tormento

Se ’l dolce sguardo di costei m’ancide

Se l’onorata fronde che prescrive

Se ’I pensier che mi strugge

Se ’l sasso ond’ è più chiusa questa valle

Se mai foco per foco non si spense

Sennuccio, i’ vo’ che sapi in qual manera

Sennuccio, I want you to know the way

Sennuccio mio, ben ché doglioso et solo

Sento l’aura mia antica, e i dolci colli

Se quell’ aura soave de’ sospiri

Seventeen years the heavens have revolved

Se Virgilio et Omero avessin visto

Se voi poteste per turbati segni

She comes to mind (no, she is always there—

She’d let her gold hair flow free in the breeze

She for whom I exchanged Arno for Sorgue

She, lovely and alive, would fill my heart

Si breve è ’l tempo e ’lpenser sì veloce

Sì come eterna vita è veder Dio

Sì è debile il filo a cui s’attene,
7

S’ i’ fussi stato fermo a la spelunca

Signor mio caro, ogni pensier mi tira

S’ i’ ’l dissi mai, ch’ i’ vegna in odio a quella

Silent I cannot be, but still I fear

Since I have found the road to mercy closed

Since it has been my fate

Since the serene, angelic sight of her

Since what I hope for takes too long to come

Since you and I have many times been witness

S’ io avesse pensato che sì care

S’ io credesse per morte essere scarco

Si tosto come aven che l’arco scocchi

Si traviato è ’l folle mi desio

So far astray is my insane desire

So fragile is the thread on which there hangs

Solea da la fontana di mia vita

Solea lontana in sonno consolarme

Soleano i miei penser soavemente

Soleasi nel mio cor star bella et viva

Solo et pensoso i più deserti campi

Someone perhaps may think, in praise of her

Sometimes from her expression fair and kind

Sometimes I seem to hear the messenger

Son animali al mondo de sì altera

S’ onesto amorpo meritar mercede

So short the time, so rapid is the thought

Soul full of bliss who often comes to me

Spinse amor et dolor ove ir non debbe

Spirit so happy who so very sweetly

Spirto felice che sì dulcemente

Spirto gentil che quelle membra reggi

Standomi un giorno solo a la fenestra

Stiamo, Amor, a veder la gloria nostra

S’ una fede amorosa, un cor non finto

Sustaining sun, that branch alone I love

Sweet anger, sweet disdain, sweet times of peace

Sweet, precious, and so cherished pledge of mine

Sweet sternness and repulses calmly dealt

Tacer non posso, et temo non adopre

Tempo era omai da trovar pace o tregua

Tennemi Amor anni ventuno ardendo

That charming paling of the face which covered

That day forever more so cruel and honored

That fire which I thought had been extinguished

That lofty lord from whom it does not serve

That nightingale so tenderly lamenting

That old and sweet yet cruel master of mine

That one who showed His endless providence

That, which in fragrance and in hue surpassed

That window where at any time it likes

That yearning, sweet dear honest glance of hers

The aura, fragrance, coolness, and the shade

The aura sighing gently as it moves

The burning knot which hour after hour

The chosen angels and the blessèd souls

The closer that I come to the last day

The food with which my lord always abounds

The gentle aura spreads and waves in sunlight

The gold and pearls, the flowers red and white

The gracious breeze that clears the hills again

The gracious tree that I loved hard for years

The greed of Babylon has so filled the sack

The heavenly aura breathing in that green laurel

The heavy air and the importunate fog

The high, new miracle that in our time

The hoped-for virtue flowering in you

The lady who in her eyes bears my heart

The last, alas, of all my happy days

The lovely eyes, that struck me in a way

The lovely lady whom you loved so much

The man in Thessaly with hands so anxious

The more I spread my wings wide with desire

The new song sung and weeping of the birds

The old man takes his leave, white-haired and pale

There aren’t as many fish in the sea’s waves

The sacred sight I have of this your city

The star of love already was aglow

The stars, the heavens, the elements all vied

The strangest and most wondrous

The successor of Charles who with the crown

The sun which lit for me the rightful road

The time is when the planet that marks hours

The tranquil aura that comes murmuring

They wish for night, they hate the coming dawn

This frail and perishable good of ours

This gracious soul that takes its leave of us

This kind, wild beast, this tiger’s heart or bear’s

This phoenix with the feathers made of gold

Those eyes of which I spoke with such emotion

Those graces generous Heaven gives to few

Those hills of sweetness where I left myself

Those rhymes of pity which made me aware

Though I have always kept you from all lies

Three days ago a soul was put in place

Tornami a mente (anzi v’è dentro quella

To the sweet shade of all those lovely leaves

Tranquillo porto avea mostrato Amore

Tra quantunque leggiadre donne et belle

Turning your eyes and seeing my strange color

Tutta la mia fiorita et verde etade

Tutto ’l dì piango; et poi la notte, quando

Twelve ladies I saw virtuously at ease

Twenty-one years Love kept me burning gladly

Two formidable rivals were once joined

Two roses fresh and picked in paradise

Una candida cerva sopra l’erba

Una donna più bella assai che ’l sole

Upon that lovely face I sigh and yearn for

Vago augelletto, che cantando vai

Valle che de’ lamenti miei se piena

Valley, so filled with my lamenting words

Verdi panni sanguigni oscuri o persi

Vergine bella, che di sol vestita

Vergognando talor ch’ ancor si taccia

Vidi fra mille donne una già tale

Vincitore Alessandro Vira vinse

Vinse Anibàl, et non seppe usar poi

Virgin, so lovely, clothed in the sun’s light

Vive faville uscian de’ duo bei lumi

Voglia mi sprona, Amor mi guida et scorge

Voi ch’ ascoltate in rime sparse il suono

Volgendo gli occhi al mio novo colore

Volo con l’ali de pensieri al Cielo

What fate of mine, what force or what deceit

What fear I feel when I recall to mind

“What now, soul? You think that peace will ever come? 150

What pity, ah, what angel was so swift

What’s going on? What thoughts are these? Why still

What will I do? Can you advise me, Love? 268

When Alexander reached the famous tomb

When all of me is drawn in the direction

When day is dawning and so sweet an aura

When from its proper dwelling place departs

When I hear you speak words of so much sweetness

When in the sea the sun bathes his gold chariot

When I see coming down the sky Aurora

When I summon my sighs to call for you

When I turn back to look upon those years

When Love lowers her fair eyes to the ground

When Love within her lovely face appears

When my desire, with its two burning spurs

When Simon first received that high idea

When that kind, faithful comforter of mine

When there comes to my mind the time and place

When through my eyes to my heart’s depths there comes

Where did Love get the gold and from what mine

Where is the brow that with the slightest movement

While gazing at the clear sun of fair eyes

Who seeks to see the best Nature and Heaven

With every step I take my weary body

With his right hand Love opened my left side

With Love pursuing me to that same place

With wings made of my thoughts I fly to Heaven

Wrath vanquished the victorious Alexander

You have discolored, Death, the loveliest face

You have left, Death, the world without its sun

Your cheek which is by now weary from tears

Zefiro torna e ’l bel tempo rimena

Zephyr comes back and brings with him fair weather

I
NDEX

Achilles, myth of,
720

Actaeon, myth of,
535

Acts, Book of,
619

Ajax, myth of,
652

Albertus Magnus,
606

Alexander the Great,
651

Alfieri,
602
,
613

Allegory, veil as sign of,
526

Alliteration: in Sonnet 236,
653
; in Double Sestina 332,
704
.
See also
Elision
;
Sibilants

Amphion, myth of,
540

Andrea Capellanus,
622

Anger: as example of Petrarch’s use of language,
xxxii
; link with jealousy in Sonnet 196,
635
; as theme of Sonnet 330,
702

Annibaldi family,
556

Anniversary poems, of
Canzoniere
,
542–43
,
553
,
560
,
593
,
612
,
674

Antonio de’Becarri da Ferrara,
592

Apollo, allusions to,
524
,
533
,
545
,
550
,
589
,
621

Apollonius of Rhodes,
648

Aquae Sextiae, battle of,
600

Archilochus,
xxiii

Ardennes, forest of,
626

Argonauts, myth of Jason and,
648
,
649
,
665

Ariosto,
607
,
626

Aristophanes,
654

Arnaud de Mareuil,
547

Art, St. Thomas Aquinas on,
595

Astrology, references to,
544
,
545
,
569
,
652
,
700
,
703

Augustine, St.: and philosophical roots of Petrarch’s language,
xviii
,
xxviii
,
xxxii
; theology of compared to Petrarch’s,
xxiii
,
667
,
728
; open declaration as rhetorical device,
532
; allusions to works of in
Canzoniere
,
554
,
599
,
699
,
721
,
725
; theory of inadequacy of language to express desire,
595
; and doctrine of predestination,
686

Aurora, allusions to,
646
,
683

Avignon.
See
Papacy

Bacon, Roger,
625

Ballata,
526
,
614

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