Love
Sonnet CXXXI (In Life): Night Brings Peace to All Save Him
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
O'er earth and sky her lone watch silence keeps,
And bird and beast in stirless slumber lie,
Her starry chariot Night conducts on high,
And in its bed the waveless ocean sleeps.
I wake, muse, burn, and weep; of all my pain
The one sweet cause appears before me still;
War is my lot, which grief and anger fill,
And thinking but of her some rest I gain.
Thus from one bright and living fountain flows
The bitter and the sweet on which I feed;
One hand alone can harm me or can heal:
And thus my martyrdom no limit knows,
A thousand deaths and lives each day I feel,
So distant are the paths to peace which lead.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXXXI (In Life): Night Brings Peace to All Save Him.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/163/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXXXI (In Life): Night Brings Peace to All Save Him.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/163/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XLVIII (In Life): Conscious of His Folly, He Prays God to Turn Him to a Better Life
- Canzone XVIII (In Life): He Compares Himself to All That is Most Strange in Creation
- Sonnet CLXXVI (In Life): He Describes His State, Specifying the Date of His Attachment
- Sonnet XVII (In Death): Her Counsel Alone Affords Him Relief
- Sonnet LXXXIII (In Death): He Seems to Be with Her in Heaven