Ait S. Ph.:
Amice, te salvere dico, ac gratias tibi ago tua epistola respondente.
Actually, it was your translation, news of which was posted on usenet, which caught my attention, and informed me of
Able Muse, forum maxime probum.
To take on a sestina, for anyone who reads this response, is no mean feat. It is likely the most complex and rigorous of the metrical forms, and only few, beginning with its inventor Arnaut Daniel, and I daresay Petrarch --even beyond Dante--, mastered its demands. I still have not dared at any sestina translations, indeed, am daunted by the task.
Itaque, tibi istae operae gratulor!
If you are interested in viewing my translations, please do so at the
Grotto , under
SJ's On Petrarch . Would it be too presumptuous to post my
Descorts here? As a cycle, though all have metrical components, including two ballate (in English), they may be perceived as free verse (sed cum uso cursi).
Pax moxque, ut probsit,
S. ph.