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).
Poi che mia speme è lunga a venir troppo,
et de la vita il trappassar sí corto,
vorreimi a miglior tempo esser accorto,
per fuggir dietro piú che di galoppo;
et fuggo anchor cosí debile et zoppo
da l’un de’ lati, ove ‘l desio m’à storto:
securo omai, ma pur nel viso porto
segni ch’i’ò presi a l’amoroso intoppo.
Ond’io consiglio: Voi che siete in via,
volgete i passi; et voi ch’Amore avampa,
non v’indugiate su l’extremo ardore;
ché perch’io viva de mille un no scampa;
era ben forte la nemica mia,
et lei vid’io ferita in mezzo ‘l core.
Because my hope takes too long to mature,
and what is left of life is so fleeting,
I wish I’d realised it in time
and fled away, faster than at a gallop:
and I do flee, though weak and wracked
from side to side, as desire twists me:
safe now, but bearing in my face
the marks received in love’s struggle.
So my advice is: ‘You who are on your way,
retrace your steps: and you Love sets alight
don’t wait there, among extremes of heat:
though I live, not one in a thousand escapes:
she was strong, that enemy of mine,
and yet I saw her wounded in the heart.’