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Volgendo gli occhi al mio novo colore - Francesco Petrarch, Some Love Songs [1915]

Edition used:

Some Love Songs of Petrarch, translated and annotated with a Biographical Introduction by William Dudley Foulke (Oxford University Press, 1915).

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Volgendo gli occhi al mio novo colore

  • Turning your eyes upon that ashen hue
  • Which bids all men remember them of death,
  • ’Twas pity moved your soul and from you drew
  • That kindly greeting which did keep the breath
  • That stirs my heart; the fragile life that dwells
  • In this weak flesh did your fair eyes bestow,
  • And that angelic voice that softly wells
  • With rippling music. ’Tis from them I know
  • My very being. As sluggish beasts will start
  • Stung by the rod, so is the slumber rent
  • In my dull soul. The keys1 to my sad heart,
  • Lady, you have them both. I am content,
  • Ready with any wind to sail the sea;
  • Since all that comes from you is sweet to me.
  • lxiii

1339. See Mascetta, p. 455.

Laura was especially kind to her lover when he was about to leave her for a considerable time on one of his journeys, as appears from the following sonnet describing their last meeting prior to his departure for Italy.

[1 ]Of joy and sorrow.