Love
Sonnet XLVI (In Life): Imprecation Against the Laurel
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
The graceful tree I loved so long and well,
Ere its fair boughs in scorn my flame declined,
Beneath its shade encouraged my poor mind
To bud and bloom, and 'mid its sorrow swell.
But now, my heart secure from such a spell,
Alas, from friendly it has grown unkind!
My thoughts entirely to one end confined,
Their painful sufferings how I still may tell.
What should he say, the sighing slave of love,
To whom my later rhymes gave hope of bliss,
Who for that laurel has lost all--but this?
May poet never pluck thee more, nor Jove
Exempt; but may the sun still hold in hate
On each green leaf till blight and blackness wait.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XLVI (In Life): Imprecation Against the Laurel.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/59/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet XLVI (In Life): Imprecation Against the Laurel.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/59/.
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 CLXXIV (In Life): He Leaves Vaucluse, but His Spirit Remains There with Laura
- Sonnet XIV (In Death): He Thanks Her That from Time to Time She Returns to Console Him with Her Presence
- Canzone VI (In Death): She Appears to Him, and, with More Than Wonted Affection, Endeavours to Console Him