Petrarch (83 page)

18.
among you:
In this natural scene where Laura opened his heart.

19.
return to its home:
To heaven unclothed by the body.

24.
more secluded port:
Note the equivocal rhyme in lines 22 and 24. The word
porto
corresponds to
seno
in the first stanza and
lembo
in line 46; that is, it suggests the womb as well as the limits of mother earth.

26.
flee from:
The soul might otherwise linger, reluctant to leave the body in an unloved place.

27.
And there will come a time:
The tense changes to a present future. Time past and future are omnipresent in this
canzone.

28.
well-known place:
The word
soggiorno
(place) suggests pleasure and repose. Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
VII, 45.

29.
the lovely animal… tamed:
Cf. 23.149: “fera bella et cruda,” and 112.8: “or mansueta or disdegnosa et fera.”

32.
she turns her eyes:
Cf. 106.8, where the “sweetest light came spreading from her eyes.”

38.
force open:
Her prayers on behalf of this sinner might reverse heaven’s judgment against him.
Cf. Dante,
Inferno
II, 94–96.

39.
her lovely veil:
As spring draws her veil across the mourning earth. An abrupt transition follows
these words. Cf. 125.49, when just a word or two was sufficient to turn his mind away
from the gathering shadows.

42.
flowers in a rain:
Heavenly praises.

43.
sitting there:
Cf. the past absolute tense of lines 4–9. Here he changes to the imperfect, which
flows forth from the past.

45.
now covered:
Some sense of covering appears in each stanza (see lines 8,18, and 58 for the words
ricoverse, ricopra,
and
carico
). The congedo may provide an explanation with its reference to
ornamenti.

love’s bloom:
Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
XXX, 28, where Beatrice is seen “within a nebula of flowers.”

46.
on her lap:
Lembo
signifies margin but also the distance one must go before returning to the womb,
or to a merciful God.

47.
on her blond curls:
Hair now flowing free rather than braided. She appears to be freshly created, with
the voluptuousness of youth.

48.
like pearls:
Cf. 325.80, “she was pure pearl enclosed in finest gold.”

51.
lovelike wandering:
Intimations of mortality with the spiral movement of that last circling bloom.

52.
Here Love reigns:
These words make a sigh like all the world adoring.

58.
filled me with forgetfulness:
He was able for a time to transcend travail. Cf. 189.1, “colma d’oblio.”

60.
from the true image:
As in poem 119, the essence of Laura, her truth, has become obscured by the dazzling
reality of her presence.

62.
how and when … :
As if shaking himself awake. Cf.
Purgatorio
XXXII, 1–3, where Dante is bereft of every other sense but sight when Beatrice reveals
herself.

63.
not where I was:
In a post-lapsarian Eden.

65.
this bank of grass:
The green bank of poem 125 where grows the “lovely branch.”

66–68.
If you …:
Petrarch speaks to his canzone as he did in poem 125, having adorned her now with
a beauty “worthy” of mankind.

67.
with boldness:
Generated by the “flame of love.” Cf. 125.1–3.

The glorious image of Laura in poem 126 rules the poet’s heart so that its effects
are multiplied wherever he goes, near or far. Similar in theme to poem 37, marking
another period of separation from Laura, this canzone transforms emotional pain into
joy. A numerical base seems to be at work from stanza to stanza, beginning with one–in–a–thousand
and progressing to the thousand-in-one of the last stanza.

1.
In that direction:
Toward Laura, the “one lady” of line 14. (
Quellaparte
becomes the plural
quante parti
in line 89.)

4.
shall be last…first?:
Cf. 23.30.

5.
The one:
Love.

6.
he dictates with confusion:
As if thoughts (verses) pressed on Love in their haste to be expressed.

7.
I shall tell the story:
He begins a kind of summation.

12–14.
I say that … :
The argument of the canzone is stated in these lines, transfigured by metaphor in
stanza 7, and reconnected with his pain in the congedo, like a musical composition.

16.
greatest good of mine:
This desire to recreate the divine Laura.

17.
painful:
His martyrdom.

19.
in youthful guise:
In springtime.

22.
now a lady:
The mature
donna
who has dominion over him.

23.
once the sun has risen:
When it is high in the sky, as in summer.

25.
flame of love… high in the heart:
When love is most consuming.

27.
step by step retreating:
Following the summer solstice the sun sets earlier each day, depriving the day of
warmth so that it “laments.”

28.
reached her perfect days:
In fall, in a state of equilibrium or maturity, but also in a culminating sense,
so that decline must follow.

29.
When I gaze:
He turns away mentally from winter and recalls spring, beginning the cycle over.
Four seasons become three.

31.
the better stars:
The planets that rule in spring.

32.
the green and violets:
Green for hope of fulfillment and purple for purity and sacrifice.

33–34.
Love… / was armed:
The hope, purity, and spirit of sacrifice revealed to him by Laura.

35.
tender bark:
Her outer aspect, the sublime covering that transports her soul through life.

41.
flowered… grew beyond:
Bloomed and seeded herself.

42.
sole cause:
Her body mirrors the beauty of her soul.

all my woes:
His struggle to reflect that beauty.

44.
snow struck by the sun:
Cf. 30.31–39. Here, hills replace the alpine mountain, and the snow covering is light
and
tenera.

45.
the way sun does on snow:
It quickly melts him to tears.

46.
more fair than human:
More than humanly beautiful.

47.
which from afar:
The closer he comes to her, the more aware he is of her mystery.

49.
between the white and golden:
Of snow and sun, face and hair, corresponding to distance and nearness.

50–51.
which no eye / has ever seen:
Cf. Paul, I Cor. 2:9, “Neque oculis vidit, neque auris audivit, neque in cor hominis
ascendit.”

54–55.
forgetfulness / means nothing:
Cf. 126.56.

55.
becomes eternal:
Cf. Dante,
Paradiso
XXXIII, 94–105.

57–70.
I’ve never seen … :
This stanza makes three analogies with Laura, “three lovely excellences.”

58.
the wandering stars … air:
Planets which become visible as the rain clouds retreat in the night sky.

59.
between the dew and frost:
In autumn, when dew freezes between morning and evening.

62.
shadowed by a lovely veil:
Cf. poems 11, 38, 52, 59, 72.55–56, and 126.39.

63.
on that day the sky:
The day of his first encounter with her.

67.
the light… approaching:
Laura, the sun.

70.
all in darkness:
The gathering shadows not only are a premonition of death but also suggestive of
a dark age in history when Christ’s presence is not felt.

71.
and some vermilion:
The Latin double diminutive of the word “worm,” close to putrefaction according to
the OED; synonymous with “cochineal.” Cf. Isa. 1:18.

73.
fresh by virgin hands:
Cf. Virgil,
Aeneid
XI, 68: “Qualem virgineo demessum pollice florem.” Or like the flowers gathered by
the maiden Proserpina, shadowing loss and ruin. These colors compare with the violet
and green of stanza 4.

75–76.
far excels…/… it gathers:
She is more than the sum of her parts.

76.
those three:
Her hair, cheeks, and bosom, whose colors surpass the white and vermilion flowers
and the gold of the vase.

80.
slightest breeze:
L’òra suggests time, since
l’ora
means “hour.” Cf. St. Augustine,
De Trinitate
V, 16–17: “The Spirit is a gift eternally, but has been given in time.”

83.
free in the breeze:
Untied. Cf. 29.3 and 121.4

84.
burn so quick:
Cf. line 25.

85–87.
count…/ the stars … enclose/the sea:
These two examples were drawn from St. Augustine’s
De Trinitate
(Castelvetro). The all-in-one figure appears in Rom. 5:5–21, where Paul invests in
one man, Jesus Christ, all evidence of the grace of God.

87.
strange thought:
In the sense of new, unique.

90.
remaining one:
Like the sun she gives light without depleting herself, renewing herself perpetually
through time.

93.
closed in my steps:
Made him part of her. Cf. Wis. of Sol. 7:26–27; Ps. 138.2–13; St. Augustine,
Confessiones
I, 2–4, VII, 16–19, and X, 33–38 (Durling).

99.
all I say is nothing:
Cf. lines 54–55: “so that forgetfulness / means nothing.”

100.
hides in me:
About which he remains silent, although all he has said before flows from it.

105.
absence of my heart:
Possessed by love.

106.
stay of death:
By writing of her beautiful effects.

In this famous political poem Petrarch pleas with the warring factions in Italy to
come to peaceful terms, addressing himself to proud and jealous princes who, in the
pursuit of short-term gains, have lost sight of the Roman ideal of civic virtue. Scholars
date the canzone’s composition to 1344 or early 1345 at Parma, during a war between
the d’Este and Gonzaga families (the latter aligned with the Viscontis) in which Bavarian
mercenaries were employed.

3.
your lovely body:
As biblical writings personify Israel. The mortal wounds are those of Italy’s fallen,
from which blood continually pours. Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
VII, 95.

4.
for my sighs to be one:
That Petrarch considered this political poem of great significance is confirmed by
its language and metaphor, utilizing that of the canzoni surrounding it to very different
effect.

7.
Ruler of Heaven:
The poet mixes the classical invocation with the Christian, as Dante did in
Purgatorio
VI, 118: “O Jove Supreme, crucified here on earth for all mankind.”

9.
holy land:
Italy, seat of the Holy Roman Church.

10.
gracious Lord:
Christ.

11.
trivial reasons:
Indicating the noblemen’s willingness to fight over the slightest offense, even a
woman (Zingarelli).

12.
enclosed and hardened:
Concerned only with their local affairs, heedless of a wider moral context.

17.
You:
Petrarch turns his discourse directly to the warring lords, whose power came from
Fortune rather than merit.

20.
swords of strangers:
Of mercenary troops.

22.
barbaric blood:
This sarcastic image carries with it disgust for the desecration of Italy’s carefully
tilled soil; it also implies that anyone who thinks mercenaries would spill their
blood for Italy is naive.

23.
Flattered:
The noblemen delude themselves.

25.
venal hearts:
Cf. Lucan,
Pharsalia
X, 408: “Nulla fides pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur Venalesque manus; ibi fas
ubi maxima merces.”

26.
with more followers:
You cannot buy loyalty from mercenaries who look for an opportunity to betray you.

28.
O deluge:
This invasion of a hostile tribe from Germany.

31.
by our very hands:
By personally inviting the hoards into their lands.

34–35.
screen / of Alps:
A natural defense.

35.
German rage:
Cf. 28.50. Petrarch shared this opinion with many, Pliny and Cicero included.

38.
healthy body sick:
With the passage of the Germans through the Alps, disease entered the body of Italy.

39.
same cage:
Sheep and wolves together.

44–48.
whose sides … :
Marius was the Roman consul who defeated the Cimbri and Teutons in the battle of
Aquae Sextiae in 102
B.C.
, on what came to be called the “putrid fields” for the blood that was shed there.

45.
so split open:
Spilling not only their blood but their entrails. More than 100,000 soldiers were
said to have been killed.