Love
Sonnet LXV (In Life): Better is It to Die Happy Than to Live in Pain
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
Always in hate the window shall I bear,
Whence Love has shot on me his shafts at will,
Because not one of them sufficed to kill:
For death is good when life is bright and fair,
But in this earthly jail its term to outwear
Is cause to me, alas! of infinite ill;
And mine is worse because immortal still,
Since from the heart the spirit may not tear.
Wretched! ere this who surely ought'st to know
By long experience, from his onward course
None can stay Time by flattery or by force.
Oft and again have I address'd it so:
Mourner, away! he parteth not too soon
Who leaves behind him far his life's calm June.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXV (In Life): Better is It to Die Happy Than to Live in Pain.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/85/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXV (In Life): Better is It to Die Happy Than to Live in Pain.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/85/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Sonnet XXXIV (In Life): Her Return Gladdens the Earth and Calms the Sky
- Sonnet XCV (In Life): Though He is Unhappy, His Love Remains Ever Unchanged
- Sonnet CLVIII (In Life): All His Happiness is in Gazing upon Her
- Canzone XXI (In Life): Self-Conflict
- Sonnet LXIV (In Death): Nature Displayed in Her Every Charm, but Soon Withdrew Her from Sight