Love

Vita Nuova: 'The thoughts are broken in my memory'

by Dante Alighieri 1265–1321

Translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1861; text of the Ellis and Elvey edition, 1899) · From La Vita Nuova

Love

The thoughts are broken in my memory,
Thou lovely Joy, whene’er I see thy face;
When thou art near me, Love fills up the space,
Often repeating, “If death irk thee, fly.”
My face shows my heart’s colour, verily,
Which, fainting, seeks for any leaning-place;
Till, in the drunken terror of disgrace,
The very stones seem to be shrieking, “Die!”
It were a grievous sin, if one should not
Strive then to comfort my bewildered mind
(Though merely with a simple pitying)
For the great anguish which thy scorn has wrought
In the dead sight o’ the eyes grown nearly blind,
Which look for death as for a blessed thing.

MLA

Dante Alighieri. “Vita Nuova: 'The thoughts are broken in my memory'.” Translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/dante/8/.

Chicago

Dante Alighieri. “Vita Nuova: 'The thoughts are broken in my memory'.” Translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/dante/8/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Dante Alighieri