Petrarch (115 page)
Authors: Mark Musa
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 ’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 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
NDEX
Achilles, myth of,
720
Actaeon, myth of,
535
Acts, Book of,
619
Ajax, myth of,
652
Albertus Magnus,
606
Alexander the Great,
651
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
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
Avignon.
See
Papacy
Bacon, Roger,
625