Al cader d'una pianta che si svelse
come quella che ferro o vento sterpe,
spargendo a terra le sue spoglie excelse,
mostrando al sol la sua squalida sterpe,
vidi un'altra ch'Amor obiecto scelse,
subiecto in me Callïope et Euterpe;
che 'l cor m'avinse, et proprio albergo felse,
qual per trunco o per muro hedera 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 traslato, in quel suo albergo fido
lasciò radici, onde con gravi accenti
è anchor chi chiami, et non è chi responda.
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At the fall of a tree that was levelled
like one that steel or storm uproots,
scattering its highest leaves on the ground,
showing its wretched roots to the sun,
I saw another that Love chose for object,
a subject in me for Calliope and Euterpe:
that wound around my heart, as its true home,
as ivy twines around a trunk, or wall.
That living laurel, where my highest thoughts
made their nest, though my burning sighs,
never moved a leaf of those branches,
translated to the sky, has left its roots
in its faithful home, where one still calls
in heavy metres, with no one to reply.
Note:
The first tree is Laura, the second her image
in his verse. Calliope was the muse of epic, and
Euterpe of lyric, poetry: Petrarch implying that his love
was both lyrical and epic in the context of his life.
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