Love
Sonnet CCXIII (In Life): He Cannot Believe in Her Death, but If True, He Prays God to Take Him Also from Life
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
O misery! horror! can it, then, be true,
That the sweet light before its time is spent,
'Mid all its pains which could my life content,
And ever with fresh hopes of good renew?
If so, why sounds not other channels through,
Nor only from herself, the great event?
No! God and Nature could not thus consent,
And my dark fears are groundless and undue.
Still it delights my heart to hope once more
The welcome sight of that enchanting face,
The glory of our age, and life to me.
But if, to her eternal home to soar,
That heavenly spirit have left her earthly place,
Oh! then not distant may my last day be!
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCXIII (In Life): He Cannot Believe in Her Death, but If True, He Prays God to Take Him Also from Life.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/250/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet CCXIII (In Life): He Cannot Believe in Her Death, but If True, He Prays God to Take Him Also from Life.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/250/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XLIV (In Life): Few Are the Sweets, but Many the Bitters of Love
- Sonnet C (In Life): Though Far from Laura, Solitary and Unhappy, Envy Still Pursues Him
- Sonnet CLXX (In Life): Posterity Will Accord to Him the Pity Which Laura Refuses
- Sonnet XI (In Death): She is Ever Present to Him
- Sonnet LXXIX (In Death): He Tells Her in Sleep of His Sufferings, and, Overcome by Her Sympathy, Awakes