Love
Sonnet XCV (In Life): Though He is Unhappy, His Love Remains Ever Unchanged
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
My sixteenth year of sighs its course has run,
I stand alone, already on the brow
Where Age descends: and yet it seems as now
My time of trial only were begun.
'Tis sweet to love, and good to be undone;
Though life be hard, more days may Heaven allow
Misfortune to outlive: else Death may bow
The bright head low my loving praise that won.
Here am I now who fain would be elsewhere;
More would I wish and yet no more I would;
I could no more and yet did all I could:
And new tears born of old desires declare
That still I am as I was wont to be,
And that a thousand changes change not me.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XCV (In Life): Though He is Unhappy, His Love Remains Ever Unchanged.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/117/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XCV (In Life): Though He is Unhappy, His Love Remains Ever Unchanged.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/117/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XXIV (In Life): On Laura Dangerously Ill
- Sonnet LXXXIII (In Life): To Paudolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini
- Sonnet CXLVIII (In Life): He Compares Himself to a Bird Caught in a Net
- Sonnet CCXVI (In Life): Hearing No Tidings of Her, He Begins to Despair
- Sonnet LVI (In Death): Her Own Virtues Immortalise Her in Heaven, and His Praises on Earth