Love
Sonnet XCIX (In Life): The Causes of His Woe
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
Love, Fortune, and my melancholy mind,
Sick of the present, lingering on the past,
Afflict me so, that envious thoughts I cast
On those who life's dark shore have left behind.
Love racks my bosom: Fortune's wintry wind
Kills every comfort: my weak mind at last
Is chafed and pines, so many ills and vast
Expose its peace to constant strifes unkind.
Nor hope I better days shall turn again;
But what is left from bad to worse may pass:
For ah! already life is on the wane.
Not now of adamant, but frail as glass,
I see my best hopes fall from me or fade,
And low in dust my fond thoughts broken laid.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XCIX (In Life): The Causes of His Woe.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/123/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XCIX (In Life): The Causes of His Woe.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/123/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XXX (In Life): He Complains of the Veil and Hand of Laura, That They Deprive Him of the Sight of Her Eyes
- Sonnet LXXXIX (In Life): He Relates to His Friend Sennuccio His Unhappiness, and the Varied Mood of Laura
- Sonnet CLV (In Life): To the Sun, Whose Setting Hid Laura's Dwelling from His View
- Sonnet CCXXIII (In Life): The Eyes of Laura Are the School of Virtue
- Sonnet LXI (In Death): He Prays That, in Reward for His Long and Virtuous Attachment, She Will Visit Him in Death