Love
Sonnet LXVI (In Life): He Calls the Eyes of Laura Foes, Because They Keep Him in Life Only to Torment Him
Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life
Instantly a good archer draws his bow
Small skill it needs, e'en from afar, to see
Which shaft, less fortunate, despised may be,
Which to its destined sign will certain go:
Lady, e'en thus of your bright eyes the blow,
You surely felt pass straight and deep in me,
Searching my life, whence--such is fate's decree--
Eternal tears my stricken heart overflow;
And well I know e'en then your pity said:
Fond wretch! to misery whom passion leads,
Be this the point at once to strike him dead.
But seeing now how sorrow sorrow breeds,
All that my cruel foes against me plot,
For my worse pain, and for my death is not.
Cite this poem
MLA
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXVI (In Life): He Calls the Eyes of Laura Foes, Because They Keep Him in Life Only to Torment Him.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/86/.
Chicago
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch). “Sonnet LXVI (In Life): He Calls the Eyes of Laura Foes, Because They Keep Him in Life Only to Torment Him.” Translated by Major Macgregor. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/petrarch/86/.
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More by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch)
- Ballata III (In Life): He Thought Himself Free, but Finds That He is More Than Ever Enthralled by Love
- Sonnet CI (In Life): Reply to a Sonnet of Jacopo Da Lentino
- Sonnet CLXXI (In Life): He Rejoices at Being on Earth with Her, as He is Thereby Enabled Better to Imitate Her Virtues
- Sonnet X (In Death): He Desires to Die, That His Soul May Be with Her, as His Thoughts Already Are
- Sonnet LXXVIII (In Death): He Feels That the Day of Their Reunion is at Hand