Petrarch Laura Francesco Petrarch and Laura For a woman he would never know
For a woman he could never have
He should change the world forever
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Petrarch:The Canzoniere

Translated by: A.S.Kline
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Information on the sonnet is available here.
Looking for an analysis of a specific poem from the Canzoniere?
Read I go thinking an analysis of poem 264 by Holly Barbaccia.


ITALIAN ENGLISH
Per mezz'i boschi inhospiti et selvaggi,
onde vanno a gran rischio uomini et arme,
vo securo io, ché non pò spaventarme
altri che 'l sol ch'à d'amor vivo i raggi;

et vo cantando (o penser' miei non saggi!)
lei che 'l ciel non poria lontana farme,
ch'i' l'ò negli occhi, et veder seco parme
donne et donzelle, et son abeti et faggi.

Parme d'udirla, udendo i rami et l'òre
et le frondi, et gli augei lagnarsi, et l'acque
mormorando fuggir per l'erba verde.

Raro un silentio, un solitario horrore
d'ombrosa selva mai tanto mi piacque:
se non che dal mio sol troppo si perde.

Through the midst of inhospitable, wild woods,
where men at arms go at great risk,
I go safely, since nothing can frighten me
except that sun whose rays are alive with love:

and I go singing (oh, my unwise thoughts!)
of her whom heaven cannot set distant from me,
whom I have in my vision, and seem to see
women and girls with her, and they are beech and fir.

I seem to hear her, hearing the branches and breeze,
and the leaves, and the birds lamenting, and the water
murmuring, running through the green grass.

Rarely did silence, and solitary awesomeness
of shadowy woodland ever please me so:
if only too much of my sunlight were not lost.


© Copyright 1999-2006
Peter Sadlon
Updated Sept 10th 2007

A Merentha Entertainment Project


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