LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,110)
  • Text Authors (19,487)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Guido Guinizzelli (c1230 - 1276)
Translation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882)

Al cor gentil ripara sempre amore
Language: Italian (Italiano) 
Al cor gentil ripara sempre amore
come l'ausello in selva a la verdura;
né fe' amor anti che gentil core,
né gentil core anti ch'amor, natura:
ch'adesso con' fu 'l sole,
sì tosto lo splendore fu lucente,
né fu davanti'l sole;
e prende amore in gentilezza loco
così propiamente
come calore in clarità di foco.

Foco d'amore in gentil cor s'aprende
come vertute in petra preziosa,
che da la stella valor no i discende
anti che 'l sol la faccia gentil cosa;
poi che n'ha tratto fòre
per sua forza lo sol ciò che li è vile,
stella li dà valore:
così lo cor ch'è fatto da natura
asletto, pur, gentile,
donna a guisa di stella lo 'nnamora.

Amor per tal ragion sta 'n cor gentile
per qual lo foco in cima del doplero:
splendeli al su' diletto, clar, sottile;
no li stari' altra guisa, tant' è fero.
Così prava natura
recontra amor come fa l'aigua il foco
caldo, per la freddura.
Amore in gentil cor prende rivera
per suo consimel loco
com' adamàs del ferro in la minera.

Fere lo sol lo fango tutto 'l giorno
vile reman, né 'l sol perde calore;
dis' omo alter: "Gentil per sclatta torno";
lui semblo al fango, al sol gentil valore:
ché non dé dar om fé
che gentilezza sia fòr di coraggio
in degnità d'ere'
sed a vertute non ha gentil core,
com' aigua porta raggio
e 'l ciel riten le stelle e lo splendore.

Splende 'n la 'ntelligenzia del cielo
Deo criator più che 'n nostr'occhi 'l sole:
quella intende suo fattor oltra cielo,
e 'l ciel volgiando, a Lui obedir tole,
e consegue, al primero,
del giusto Deo beato compimento:
così dar dovria, al vero,
la bella donna, poi che 'n gli occhi splende
del suo gentil talento,
che mai di lei obedir non si disprende.

Donna, Deo mi dirà: "Che presomisti?",
siando l'alma mia a Lui davanti.
"Lo ciel passasti e 'nfin a Me venisti
e desti in vano amor Me per semblanti:
ch'a Me conven le laude
e a la reina del regname degno, 
per cui cessa onne fraude".
Dir Li porò: "Tenne d'angel sembianza
che fosse del Tuo regno;
non me fu fallo, s'eo li posi amanza".

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Guido Guinizzelli (c1230 - 1276), no title [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):

    [ None yet in the database ]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in English, a translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882) , "The nature of Love", appears in The Poets and Poems of Europe, first published 1845 [an adaptation] ; composed by Leon J. Fontaine.
      • Go to the text.
  • Also set in English, a translation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882) , "Canzone: of the gentle heart", appears in The Early Italian Poets, first published 1861 ; composed by Rutland Boughton.
      • Go to the text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-04-22
Line count: 60
Word count: 371

Within the gentle heart Love shelters...
Language: English  after the Italian (Italiano) 
Within the gentle heart Love shelters him,
  As birds within the green shade of the grove. 
Before the gentle heart, in Nature's scheme,
  Love was not, nor the gentle heart ere Love.
For with the sun, at once,
  So sprang the light immediately; nor was
Its birth before the sun's.
  And Love hath his effect in gentleness
Of very self; even as
  Within the middle fire the heat's excess.

The fire of Love comes to the gentle heart
  Like as its virtue to a precious stone;
To which no star its influence can impart
  Till it is made a pure thing by the sun:
For when the sun hath smit
  From out its essence that which there was vile,
The star endoweth it.
  And so the heart created by God's breath
Pure, true, and clean from guile,
  A woman, like a star, enamoureth.

In gentle heart Love for like reason is
  For which the lamp's high flame is fann'd and bow'd:
Clear, piercing bright, it shines for its own bliss;
  Nor would it burn there else, it is so proud.
For evil natures meet
  With Love as it were water met with fire,
As cold abhorring heat.
  Through gentle heart Love doth a track divine, --
Like knowing like; the same
  As diamond runs through iron in the mine.

The sun strikes full upon the mud all day;
  It remains vile, nor the sun's worth is less.
"By race I am gentle," the proud man doth say:
  He is the mud, the sun is gentleness.
Let no man predicate
  That aught the name of gentleness should have,
Even in a king's estate,
  Except the heart there be a gentle man's.
The star-beam lights the wave, --
  Heaven holds the star and the star's radiance.

God, in the understanding of high Heaven,
  Burns more than in our sight the living sun:
There to behold His Face unveil'd is given;
  And Heaven, whose will is homage paid to One,
Fulfils the things which live
  In God, from the beginning excellent.
So should my lady give
  That truth which in her eyes is glorified,
On which her heart is bent,
  To me whose service waiteth at her side.

My lady, God shall ask, "What dared'st thou?"
  (When my soul stands with all her acts review'd;)
"Thou passed'st Heaven, into My sight, as now,
  To make Me of vain love similitude.
To Me doth praise belong,
  And to the Queen of all the realm of grace
Who endeth fraud and wrong."
  Then may I plead: "As though from Thee he came,
Love wore an angel's face:
  Lord, if I loved her, count it not my shame."

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882), "Canzone: of the gentle heart", appears in The Early Italian Poets, first published 1861 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in Italian (Italiano) by Guido Guinizzelli (c1230 - 1276), no title
    • Go to the text page.

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

  • by Rutland Boughton (1878 - 1960), "The gentle heart", published 1929 [ TTBB chorus a cappella ], from Three Partsongs, London: Joseph Williams [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-04-22
Line count: 60
Word count: 440

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris