Francesco Petrarca

Francesco Petrarca HOME
Francesco Petrarca The first verses and selected excerpts Canzoniere 1 0 you who hear within these scattered verses the sound of sighs with which I fed my heart in my first errant youthful days when I in part was not the man I am today; heart for all the ways in which I weep and speak between vain hopes, between vain suffering, in anyone who knows love through its trials, in them, may I find pity and forgiveness, But now I see how I've become the talk so long a time of people all around (it often makes me feel so full of shame), and from my vanities there comes shame's fruit, and my repentance, and the clear awareness that worldly joy is just a fleeting dream. 2 Determined to take up graceful revenge and punish in one day a thousand wrongs, secretly Love took up his bow again and chose the proper time and place to strike. My strength was concentrated in my heart, and there and in my eyes raised its defense when down upon it struck the mortal blow where every other arrow had been blunted; and so, bewildered by this first assault, it did not have the vigor or the chance to take up arms when it was time to fight, or even to lead me cleverly back up the high, hard mountain saving me from slaughter, from which he'd like to now, but cannot help. […] The senses reign, and reason now is dead; from one pleasing desire comes another. Virtue, honor, beauty, gracious bearing, sweet words have caught me in her lovely branches in which my heart is tenderly entangled. In thirteen twenty-seven, and precisely at the first hour of the sixth of April I entered the labyrinth, and I see no way out.” […] “Now that the time that calls me to depart draws near, I think, or will not be too long, like one whom losses make acute and wise, I keep on wondering where I left the way that leads to a safe haven on the right: and on the one hand I am stung by shame and sorrow making me turn back; and on the other cannot break the habit of a pleasure grown so strong that now it dares to play for time with death.”

The first verses and selected excerpts

Canzoniere

1

0 you who hear within these scattered verses
the sound of sighs with which I fed my heart
in my first errant youthful days when I
in part was not the man I am today; heart

for all the ways in which I weep and speak
between vain hopes, between vain suffering,
in anyone who knows love through its trials,
in them, may I find pity and forgiveness,

But now I see how I've become the talk
so long a time of people all around
(it often makes me feel so full of shame),

and from my vanities there comes shame's fruit,
and my repentance, and the clear awareness
that worldly joy is just a fleeting dream.

2

Determined to take up graceful revenge
and punish in one day a thousand wrongs,
secretly Love took up his bow again
and chose the proper time and place to strike.

My strength was concentrated in my heart,
and there and in my eyes raised its defense
when down upon it struck the mortal blow
where every other arrow had been blunted;

and so, bewildered by this first assault,
it did not have the vigor or the chance
to take up arms when it was time to fight,

or even to lead me cleverly back up
the high, hard mountain saving me from slaughter,
from which he'd like to now, but cannot help.

[…]

The senses reign, and reason now is dead;
from one pleasing desire comes another.
Virtue, honor, beauty, gracious bearing,
sweet words have caught me in her lovely branches
in which my heart is tenderly entangled.
In thirteen twenty-seven, and precisely
at the first hour of the sixth of April
I entered the labyrinth, and I see no way out.”

[…]

“Now that the time that calls me to depart
draws near, I think, or will not be too long,
like one whom losses make acute and wise,
I keep on wondering where I left the way
that leads to a safe haven on the right:
and on the one hand I am stung
by shame and sorrow making me turn back;
and on the other cannot break
the habit of a pleasure grown so strong
that now it dares to play for time with death.”