Petrarch (56 page)

already worried, sad, in happy times

in the belovèd sight, sought
so intent
ly

some consolation from your
coming troubles
:

from how she moved and spoke and looked and dressed,

from her
strange pity
that was mixed with pain,

you could have said,
were you fully aware
:

“This is the last day of my years of sweetness.”

What sweetness
in that moment
, my poor soul!

How much we burned
the time that I beheld

those eyes that I would
never see again
,

that time when leaving I left in their keeping

(as if they were two of my truest friends)

my noblest part
—my loving thoughts, my heart.

All of my flowering and my
green age

was passing, and already I felt cooling

the fire in my heart
, and I had reached

the point where life declines
to meet its end;

already
my dear enemy
was slowly

beginning to gain confidence against

her fears
and playfully to
turn to joy

my bitter pains with her sweet honesty;

the time was near when Love is
reconciled

with Chastity
and lovers are allowed

to
sit and talk
, confiding in each other.

Then Death envied that blissful state of mine—

rather the hope
—and rushed attacking it

halfway, just like an enemy all armed.

Tempo era omai da trovar pace o tregua

di tanta guerra, et erane in via, forse,

se non che’ lieti passi indietro torse

chi le disaguaglianze nostre adegua;

chè come nebbia al vento si dilegua

così sua vita subito trascorse

quella che già co’ begli occhi mi scorse,

et or conven che col penser la segua.

Poco aveva a ’ndugiar che gli anni e ’l pelo

cangiavano i costumi, onde sospetto

non fora il ragionar del mio mal seco;

con che onesti sospiri l’avrei detto

le mie lunghe fatiche! ch’ or dal Cielo

vede, son certo, et duolsene ancor meco.

Tranquillo porto avea mostrato Amore

a la mia lunga et torbida tempesta

fra gli anni de la età matura, onesta,

che i vizi spoglia et vertù veste e onore;

già traluceva a’ begli occhi il mio core

et l’alta fede non più lor molesta.

Ahi, Morte ria, come a schiantar se’ presta

il frutto de molt’anni in si poche ore!

Pur vivendo veniasi ove deposto

in quelle caste orecchie avrei, parlando,

de’ miei dolci pensier l’antica soma,

et ella avrebbe a me forse resposto

qualche santa parola sospirando,

cangiati i volti et l’una et l’altra coma.

Now it was time to find
my peace or truce

from such a war, and it might have been near,

but
those glad steps
were
turned back by the one

who evens out our inequalities;

for as the mist vanishes with the wind,

so suddenly did she run through
her life
,

the one whose lovely eyes would guide my way,

whom I can follow now only in thought.

She hadn’t long to wait
, for years and hair

were changing me
, and she need have no fear

that I would talk to her
about my troubles
.

With what
virtuous sighs
I would have told her

of my long labors
, which from Heaven now

she sees
, I’m sure, and grieves for them with me.

Love showed to me
a port of peacefulness

from my unending
storming turbulence

during the years of
chaste maturity

that
strips off vice
to don virtue and honor;

my
heart and
my deep faithfulness now shone

in her fair eyes worried for them no longer.

Ah, wicked Death, how quick you are to
spoil

the fruit of many years in so few hours!

If she had lived the day would come when I,

talking, would have
entrusted her chaste ears

with
all the ancient weight
of my sweet thoughts,

and she, perhaps, would have replied to me

in
chosen words
of sighing consolation,

our faces
changed, our hair, both hers and mine.

Al cader d’una pianta che si svelse

come quella che ferro o vento sterpe,

spargendo a terra le sue spoglie eccelse,

mostrando al sol la sua squalida sterpe,

vidi un’altra, ch’ Amor obietto scelse,

subietto in me Calliope et Euterpe,

che ’l cor m’avinse et proprio albergo felse,

qual per trunco o per muro edera serpe.

Quel vivo lauro, ove solean far nido

li alti penseri e i miei sospiri ardenti

che de’ bei rami mai non mossen fronda,

al Ciel translato, in quel suo albergo fido

lasciò radici onde con gravi accenti

è ancor chi chiami, et non è chi responda.

I dì miei più leggier che nesun cervo

fuggir come ombra, et non vider più bene

ch’ un batter d’occhio, et poche ore serene

ch’ amare et dolci ne la mente servo.

Misero mondo instabile et protervo,

del tutto è cieco chi ’n te pon sua spene,

ché ’n te mi fu ’l cor tolto, et or sel tene

tal ch’ è già terra et non giunge osso a nervo.

Ma la forma miglior che vive ancora

et vivrà sempre su ne l’ alto cielo,

di sue bellezze ogni or più m’innamora;

et vo sol in pensar cangiando il pelo

quale ella è oggi e ’n qual parte dimora,

qual a vedere il suo leggiadro velo.

At a tree’s crash
just torn up from the ground

as if uprooted
by the wind or iron
,

scattering
on the earth its noble spoil,

displaying to the sun
its wretched root
,

I saw another Love chose
as my goal,

and
Euterpe and Calliope
as my subject
,

that
bound my heart
and turned it into home

as ivy winds
its way on trunk or wall.

That living laurel, where there often nested

my lofty thoughts, my sighs of burning passion

that
never stirred a leaf
on those fair boughs,

risen
to Heaven, left in that faithful dwelling

its roots, from where with painful sounds somebody

keeps calling out
, but no one’s there to answer.

My days
, swifter than any deer, have fled

like shadows, and for me no good has lasted

more than a wink
, and
few were those calm hours

whose bittersweetness
I keep in my mind
.

O wretched world
, changing and arrogant,

a man who puts his hope in you is blind:

from you
my heart was torn
and now is held

by one whose flesh and bones are turned to dust.

But
her best form
, which still continues living

and will forever live high in the heavens,

makes me fall more in love
with all her beauty;

and as my hair is changing I think only

what she is like today and where she dwells,

what it was like
to see her lovely veil.

Sento l’aura mia antica, e i dolci colli

veggio apparire onde ’l bel lume nacque

che tenne gli occhi mei, mentr’ al Ciel piacque,

bramosi et lieti, or li ten tristi et molli.

O caduche speranze, o penser folli!

vedove l’erbe et torbide son l’acque

et voto et freddo ’l nido in ch’ ella giacque,

nel qual io vivo et morto giacer volli,

sperando alfin da le soavi piante

et da’ belli occhi suoi, che ’l cor m’ànn’ arso,

riposo alcun de le fatiche tante.

O’ servito a signor crudele et scarso:

ch’ arsi quanto ’l mio foco ebbi davante,

or vo piangendo il suo cenere sparso.

E’ questo ’l nido in che la mia fenice

mise l’aurate et le purpuree penne,

che sotto le sue ali il mio cor tenne

et parole et sospiri anco n’elice?

O del dolce mio mal prima radice,

ov’ è il bel viso onde quel lume venne

che vivo et lieto ardendo mi mantenne?

Sol eri in terra, or se’ nel Ciel felice

et m’ai lasciato qui misero et solo,

tal che pien di duol sempre al loco torno

che per te consecrato onoro et colo,

veggendo a’ colli oscura notte intorno

onde prendesti al Ciel l’ultimo volo

et dove li occhi tuoi solean far giorno.

I feel the
aura of old times
, sweet hills

I see appear where the fair light was born

that kept my eyes, while it was Heavens pleasure,

longing and glad, but now
forlorn and wet
.

Oh short-lived hopes! The madness in our thoughts!

The grass is widowed
and the waters troubled,

empty and cold
the nest in which she lay
,

in which
I live
and would have liked to die,

hoping to have at last from her kind feet,

and from her lovely eyes that burned my heart

a little rest from so much laboring.

I served a lord who is both
cruel and stingy
:

I burned as long as I could
see my fire
,

now I am weeping for its
scattered ashes
.

Is this the nest where
that phoenix of mine

was born to wear her
gold and purple feathers
,

and where she kept my heart
under her wing

and
still elicits
sighs and words from it?

O primal root
of my sweet malady,

where is the lovely face that poured with light

that kept me living, happy,
while I burned
?

A sun on earth and happy now in Heaven?

You left me here all wretched and alone,

so always I
return to that place grieving

which I
adore and honor for your sake
;

I see
the black of night
around those hills

from where you made your final flight to Heaven

and where your eyes would bring the daylight in.

Mai non vedranno le mie luci asciutte

con le parti de l’animo tranquille

quelle note ov’ Amor par che sfaville

et Pietà di sua man l’abbia construtte.

Spirto già invitto a le terrene lutte,

ch’ or su dal Ciel tanta dolcezza stille

ch’a lo stil onde Morte dipartille

le disviate rime ài ricondutte:

di mie tenere frondi altro lavoro

credea mostrarte; et qual fero pianeta

ne’nvidiò inseme, o mio nobil tesoro?

chi ’nnanzi tempo mi t’asconde et vieta

che col cor veggio et co la lingua onoro?

E ’n te, dolce sospir, l’alma s’acqueta.

Standomi un giorno solo a la fenestra

onde cose vedea tante et si nove

ch’ era sol di mirar quasi già stanco,

una fera m’apparve da man destra

con fronte umana da far arder Giove,

cacciata da duo veltri, un nero, un bianco,

che l’un et l’altro flanco

de la fera gentil mordean si forte

che ’n poco tempo la menaro al passo

ove chiusa in un sasso

vinse molta bellezza acerba morte,

et mi fe’ sospirar sua dura sorte.

Indi per alto mar vidi una nave

con le sarte di seta et d’or la vela,

tutta d’avorio e d’ebeno contesta;

e ’l mar tranquillo et l’aura era soave

Never with eyes that are not wet or mind

that’s tranquil shall I hope to look upon

those verses in which
Love appears to sparkle

and which the
hand of Kindness
has composed
.

Spirit unvanquished
once by earthly strife,

who
now distills such sweetness
from the heavens

that you
gave back my wandering poetry

the style it had
before Death cut it off
,

some other product of my tender leaves

I hoped to show you. What cruel planet
envied

our union so, O noble treasure of mine?

Who hides
and takes you from me much too early,

you whom I see by heart, honor by tongue?

In you, sweet sigh
, my soul finds its repose.

One day
while at my window
all alone,

where I saw many and such strange things happen

that merely looking at them
made me weary
,

I saw a beast appear on my right side

with human face
to make Jove flare with love

pursued by two swift
hounds, one black one white
,

who dug their teeth so deep

into both sides of such a noble beast

that
in no time
they
forced her to the pass

where,
trapped within the stone
,

untimely death then vanquished such great beauty,

and I sighed from the sight
of her
harsh fate
.

Then out on the deep sea I saw
a boat

with
silken
ropes and sails made out of gold