Quotes from Canzoniere
12 notable lines from Francesco Petrarca · c. 1374
You who hear the sound, in scattered rhymes, of those sighs on which I fed my heart, in my first vagrant youthfulness, when I was partly other than I am,
Quotations follow the David Young translation (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004) — our recommended edition.
I find no peace, and yet I make no war: and fear, and hope: and burn, and I am ice:
Opening lines, Sonnet 134 ("Pace non trovo") · trans. A. S. Kline She let her gold hair scatter in the breeze that twined it in a thousand sweet knots,
Opening lines, Sonnet 90 ("Erano i capei d'oro") · trans. A. S. Kline Blessed be the day, and the month, and the year, and the season, and the time, and the hour, and the moment, and the beautiful country, and the place where I was joined to the two beautiful eyes that have bound me:
Opening lines, Sonnet 61 ("Benedetto sia 'l giorno") · trans. A. S. Kline Alone and thoughtful, through the most desolate fields, I go measuring out slow, hesitant paces,
Opening lines, Sonnet 35 ("Solo et pensoso") · trans. A. S. Kline What do I feel if this is not love? But if it is love, God, what thing is this?
Opening lines, Sonnet 132 ("S'amor non è") · trans. A. S. Kline Life flies, and never stays an hour, and death comes on behind with its dark day,
Opening lines, Sonnet 272 ("La vita fugge") · trans. A. S. Kline and the clearest knowledge of how the world's delight is a brief dream.
Closing lines, Sonnet 1 · trans. A. S. Kline Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together.
Francesco Petrarca, Canzoniere It was on that day when the sun's ray was darkened in pity for its Maker,
Opening lines, Sonnet 3 · trans. A. S. Kline It was the day when the sun's rays turned pale with grief for his Maker when I was taken.
Francesco Petrarca, Canzoniere Who is so safe that they need not fear?
Francesco Petrarca, Canzoniere