291

291: Zappa

english translation

291: Zappa

original Italian poem

291

Quand’io veggio dal ciel scender l’Aurora
co la fronte di rose et co’ crin’ d’oro,
Amor m’assale, ond’io mi discoloro,
et dico sospirando: Ivi è Laura ora.

O felice Titon, tu sai ben l’ora
da ricovrare il tuo caro tesoro:
ma io che debbo far del dolce alloro?
che se ’l vo’ riveder, conven ch’io mora.

I vostri dipartir’ non son sí duri,
ch’almen di notte suol tornar colei
che non â schifo le tue bianche chiome:

le mie notti fa triste, e i giorni oscuri,
quella che n’à portato i penser’ miei,
Né di sè m’à lasciato altro che ’l nome.

 

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca)

Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), commonly known as Petrarch in the English-speaking world, is the great Italian master whose work helped to create the Renaissance sonnet craze in England. He was a Franciscan tertiary, a scholar of the Classics, a friend to Decameron author Giovanni Boccaccio, and an immensely popular poet in his day. Despite his religious vows, he had two children out of wedlock, and is best known for sonnets professing intense love for a woman named Laura.

 

 

Lee Harlin Bahan

Lee Harlin Bahan earned her MFA at Indiana University-Bloomington. Her thesis, Migration Solo, won the first Indiana Poetry Chapbook Contest. Her second chapbook, Notes to Sing, was published by Finishing Line Press.

 

Syndicate content