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Quel rosigniuol, che sì soave piagne - 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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Quel rosigniuol, che sì soave piagne

  • That nightingale who doth so softly mourn
  • His little ones, perchance, or loving mate,
  • In lays melodious from a heart forlorn,
  • And fills the air with notes disconsolate—
  • Through the long night he seems to stay with me
  • To talk to me of all my grief and pain.
  • It was my fault these eyes could never see
  • That e’en o’er heavenly spirits death might reign!
  • Him that is sure, how easy to betray!
  • Her two fair eyes, far brighter than the sun—
  • Who would have thought to see them senseless clay?
  • Now do I know the course my life must run;
  • How I shall live, and weep, and clearly see
  • That here no precious thing can stay with me.
  • cccxi