Love

Sonnet LXVI (In Life): He Calls the Eyes of Laura Foes, Because They Keep Him in Life Only to Torment Him

by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) 1304–1374

Translated by Major Macgregor (in Bohn, 1879) · From To Laura in Life

Love

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.

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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