A Daily Countdown to 700 Years with the “colpi d’Amor”
“Benedetto sia ‘l giorno, et ‘l mese, et l’anno, / et la stagione, e’l tempo, et l’ora, e ‘l punto…” — Rvf 61
“Blessed be the day, and the month, and the year, and the season, and the time, and the hour, and the moment…”(Kline).
Se la mia vita da l’aspro tormento
si può tanto schermire, et dagli affanni,
ch’i’ veggia per vertù de gli ultimi anni,
donna, de’ be’ vostr’occhi il lume spento,
e i cape’ d’oro fin farsi d’argento,
et lassar le ghirlande e i verdi panni,
e ‘l viso scolorir che ne’ miei danni
a llamentar mi fa pauroso et lento:
pur mi darà tanta baldanza Amore
ch’i’ vi discovrirò de’ mei martiri
qua’ sono stati gli anni, e i giorni et l’ore;
et se ‘l tempo è contrario ai be’ desiri,
non fia ch’almen non giunga al mio dolore
alcun soccorso di tardi sospiri.
If my life of bitter torment and of tears
could be derided more, and made more troubled,
that I might see, by virtue of your later years,
lady, the light quenched of your beautiful eyes,
and the golden hair spun fine as silver,
and the garland laid aside and the green clothes,
and the delicate face fade, that makes me
fearful and slow to go weeping:
then Love might grant me such confidence
that I’d reveal to you my sufferings
the years lived through, and the days and hours:
and if time is opposed to true desire,
it does not mean no food would nourish my grief:
I might draw some from slow sighs.