Love
Sonnet CXCV (In Life): He Fears That an Illness Which Has Attacked the Eyes of Laura May Deprive Him of Their Sight
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
I lived so tranquil, with my lot content,
No sorrow visited, nor envy pined,
To other loves if fortune were more kind
One pang of mine their thousand joys outwent;
But those bright eyes, whence never I repent
The pains I feel, nor wish them less to find,
So dark a cloud and heavy now does blind,
Seems as my sun of life in them were spent.
O Nature! mother pitiful yet stern,
Whence is the power which prompts thy wayward deeds,
Such lovely things to make and mar in turn?
True, from one living fount all power proceeds:
But how couldst Thou consent, great God of Heaven,
That aught should rob the world of what thy love had given?
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXCV (In Life): He Fears That an Illness Which Has Attacked the Eyes of Laura May Deprive Him of Their Sight.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/230/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CXCV (In Life): He Fears That an Illness Which Has Attacked the Eyes of Laura May Deprive Him of Their Sight.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/230/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet VIII (In Life): He Feigns an Address from Some Birds Which He Had Presented
- Sonnet LX (In Life): He Confesses His Errors, and Throws Himself on the Mercy of God
- Sonnet CXXII (In Life): Laura in Tears
- Sonnet CXCII (In Life): Under the Figure of a Laurel, He Relates the Growth of His Love
- Sonnet XXXVI (In Death): Had She Not Died So Early, He Would Have Learned to Praise Her More Worthily