Love

Sonnet CXC (In Life): Far from His Beloved, Life is Miserable by Night as by Day

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life

Love

Never was bird, spoil'd of its young, more sad,
Or wild beast in his lair more lone than me,
Now that no more that lovely face I see,
The only sun my fond eyes ever had.
In ceaseless sorrow is my chief delight:
My food to poison turns, to grief my joy;
The night is torture, dark the clearest sky,
And my lone pillow a hard field of fight.
Sleep is indeed, as has been well express'd.
Akin to death, for it the heart removes
From the dear thought in which alone I live.
Land above all with plenty, beauty bless'd!
Ye flowery plains, green banks and shady groves!
Ye hold the treasure for whose loss I grieve!

MLA

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXC (In Life): Far from His Beloved, Life is Miserable by Night as by Day.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/225/.

Chicago

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXC (In Life): Far from His Beloved, Life is Miserable by Night as by Day.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/225/.

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