Many times now, with my true thought

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by Francesco Petrarca (1304 - 1374)

Translation © by A. S. Kline

Più volte già dal bel sembiante umano

Language: Italian (Italiano)

Our translations: ENG

Più volte già dal bel sembiante umano
ò preso ardir co le mie fide scorte
d'assalir con parole oneste accorte
la mia nemica in atto umile et piano.
Fanno poi gli occhi suoi mio penser vano
per ch'ogni mia fortuna, ogni mia sorte,
mio ben, mio male, et mia vita et mia morte
quei che solo il pò far l'à posto in mano.
Ond' io non pote' mai formar parola
ch' altro che da me stesso fosse intesa,
cosi m'à fatto Amor tremante et fioco.
Et veggi' or ben che caritate accesa
lega la lingua altrui, gli spirti invola:
chi pò dir com' egli arde è 'n picciol foco.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by Francesco Petrarca (1304 - 1374), no title, appears in Canzoniere (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta) , in 1. Rime In vita di Madonna Laura, no. 170 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752 - 1814), "Più volte già dal bel sembiante umano" [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English (A. S. Kline) , no title, copyright © 2002, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

This text was added to the website: 2007-04-16
Line count: 14
Word count: 109

Many times now, with my true thought

Language: English after the Italian (Italiano)

Many times now, with my true thought,
I’ve dared to assail my enemy, quiet and humble
in her actions, her beauty seeming kind,
with my honest well-considered speech.
Then her eyes rendered my thought vain
since all my fortune, all my destiny,
my good, my bad, my death and life, had been
placed in her hands, by him who alone can do so.
So I could not even form true words
that anyone but me could understand:
Love had made me blaze and tremble so.
And I see clearly now that glowing charity
ties a man’s tongue, and daunts his spirit:
who utters while he burns is in slight fire.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

Translation from Italian (Italiano) to English copyright © 2002 by A. S. Kline, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:

a text in Italian (Italiano) by Francesco Petrarca (1304 - 1374), no title, appears in Canzoniere (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta) , in 1. Rime In vita di Madonna Laura, no. 170
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2015-03-10
Line count: 14
Word count: 110