Love

Sonnet CLXXXVII (In Life): His Nights Are, Like His Days, Passed in Torment

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

Translated by Rev. Dr. Nott (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life

Love

When in the sea sinks the sun's golden light,
And on my mind and nature darkness lies,
With the pale moon, faint stars and clouded skies
I pass a weary and a painful night:
To her who hears me not I then rehearse
My sad life's fruitless toils, early and late;
And with the world and with my gloomy fate,
With Love, with Laura and myself, converse.
Sleep is forbid me: I have no repose,
But sighs and groans instead, till morn returns,
And tears, with which mine eyes a sad heart feeds;
Then comes the dawn, the thick air clearer grows,
But not my soul; the sun which in it burns
Alone can cure the grief his fierce warmth breeds.

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CLXXXVII (In Life): His Nights Are, Like His Days, Passed in Torment.” Translated by Rev. Dr. Nott. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/222/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CLXXXVII (In Life): His Nights Are, Like His Days, Passed in Torment.” Translated by Rev. Dr. Nott. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/222/.

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