Love
Sonnet CI (In Life): Reply to a Sonnet of Jacopo Da Lentino
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
Ways apt and new to sing of love I'd find,
Forcing from her hard heart full many a sigh,
And re-enkindle in her frozen mind
Desires a thousand, passionate and high;
O'er her fair face would see each swift change pass,
See her fond eyes at length where pity reigns,
As one who sorrows when too late, alas!
For his own error and another's pains;
See the fresh roses edging that fair snow
Move with her breath, that ivory descried,
Which turns to marble him who sees it near;
See all, for which in this brief life below
Myself I weary not but rather pride
That Heaven for later times has kept me here.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CI (In Life): Reply to a Sonnet of Jacopo Da Lentino.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/130/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CI (In Life): Reply to a Sonnet of Jacopo Da Lentino.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/130/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Ballata IV (In Life): He Will Always Love Her, Though Denied the Sight of Her
- Canzone XVIII (In Life): He Compares Himself to All That is Most Strange in Creation
- Sonnet CLXXIII (In Life): Journeying Along the Rhone to Avignon, Petrarch Bids the River Kiss Laura's Hand, as It Will Arrive at Her Dwelling Before Him
- Sonnet XIV (In Death): He Thanks Her That from Time to Time She Returns to Console Him with Her Presence
- Canzone VI (In Death): She Appears to Him, and, with More Than Wonted Affection, Endeavours to Console Him