Part 1: Love Sonnets to Laura
Back in the 1300's, before card stores and chocolate
manufacturers all conspired to commercialize the true spirit of love, passion,
and romance, Francesco Petrarca literally wrote the book on infatuation. The
collection of Italian verses, Rime in vita e morte di Madonna Laura (after
1327), translated into English as Petrarch's Sonnets, were inspired by
Petrarch's unrequited passion for Laura (probably Laure de Noves), a young
woman Petrarca first saw in church.
Era il giorno ch'al sol si
scoloraro
per la pietà del suo factore i
rai,
quando ì fui preso, et non me
ne guardai,
chè i bè vostr'occhi, donna, mi legato.
Tempo non mi parea da far riparo
contra colpi d'Amor: però
m'andai
secur, senza sospetto; onde i miei guai
nel commune dolor
s'incominciaro.
Trovommi Amor del tutto disarmato
et aperta la via per gli
occhi al core,
che di lagrime son fatti uscio et varco:
Però al mio parer non li fu honore
ferir me de saetta in quello
stato,
a voi armata non mostrar pur l'arco.
It was the day the sun's ray
had turned pale
with pity for the suffering of
his Maker
when I was caught, and I put up
no fight,
my lady, for your lovely eyes
had bound me.
It seemed no time to be on
guard against
Love's blows; therefore, I went my way
secure and fearless-so,
all my misfortunes
began in mi was clear to reach my heart down through
the eyes
which have become the
halls and doors of tears.
It seems to me it did him little honor
to wound me with his
arrow in my state
and to you, armed, not show his bow at all.
