| S'IO CREDESSE PER MORTE ESSERE ............................................SCARCO ... |
IF I BELIEVED I COULD FREE MYSELF, ..............................................BY DYING ... | |
| Francesco Petrarca | tr. A. S. Kline | |
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S'io credesse per morte essere scarco del pensiero amoroso che m'atterra, colle mie mani avrei gia posto in terra queste mie membra noiose, et quello incarco; ma perch'io temo che sarrebbe un varco di pianto in pianto, et d'una in altra guerra, di qua dal passo anchor che mi si serra mezzo rimango, lasso, et mezzo il varco. Tempo ben fora omai d'avere spinto l'ultimo stral la dispietata corda ne l'altrui sangue gia bagnato et tinto; et io ne prego Amore, et quella sorda che mi lasso de' suoi color' depinto, et di chiamarmi a se non le ricorda. |
If I believed I could free myself, by dying, from amorous thoughts that bind me to the earth, I would already have laid these troubled limbs and their burden in the earth myself: but because I fear to find a passage from tears to tears, and one war to another, I remain in the midst, alas, of staying and crossing on this side of the pass that is closed to me. There has been enough time now for the merciless bow to fire its final arrow bathed and dyed already with others’ blood: yet Love does not take me, or that deaf one who has painted me with his own pallor, and still forgets to call me to him. |
Trans. Copyright © A. S. Kline 2003