Pathetically, this is the first Petrarch I have ever read (Canzoniere 186):
Se Virgilio et Homero avessin visto quel sole il qual vegg'io con gli occhi miei, tutte lor forze in dar fama a costei avrian posto, et l'un stil coll'altro misto:
di che sarebbe Enea turbato et tristo, Achille, Ulixe et gli altri semidei, et quel che resse anni cinquantasei sí bene il mondo et quel ch'ancise Egisto.
Quel fior anticho di vertuti et d'arme come sembiante stella ebbe con questo novo fior d'onestate et di bellezze!
Ennio di quel cantò ruvido carme, di quest'altro io: et oh pur non molesto gli sia il mio ingegno, e 'l mio lodar non sprezze!
If Vergil and Homer had gotten a look at that sun which I see with my own eyes, all their power would have gone to her renown, one style mixed with the other:
leaving Aeneas troubled and sad, Achilles, Ulysses and the other demigods, and the one who for fifty-six years supported the world so well, and the one whom Aegisthus slew.
That ancient flower of virtue and arms had a similar star as this new flower of honesty and beauty!
Ennius sang of him in rough song, as I do this other: and oh, may my art not be a nuisance to her, and may she not scorn my praise!
(I am not even attempting the sonnet. But this is someone I need to read more of and soon.)
Thank *God* Virgil and Homer et al. *didn't* get a look at her, then... I like having some heroic tales, thank you very much; we've got plenty of love sonnets.
I like my love poems a little more, oh, I don't know--like what you wrote about the fisher boy (sorry to harp on that but I've also been listening to that song you posted of the same name...)
Way to go on the translation, though! I like how you say Aeneas in Italian: Enea. That's got a nice sound to it.
I like my love poems a little more, oh, I don't know--like what you wrote about the fisher boy (sorry to harp on that but I've also been listening to that song you posted of the same name...)
It's a very good song. And I'm glad you like the poem.
(and why must you suddenly read lots of Petrarch?)
(Because I needed a random line about sleeplessness that could plausibly pop into the head of my narrator in the Venetian timeline: he would not have the same stock of quotations as an English-speaker, but even allowing for fudged history, I wanted someone that even an indifferent student would have found it impossible to avoid. I still ended up going with a line from Catullus, but in the process I discovered that I like Petrarch. I need a forty-hour day.)
Dussi said that she did hear some lovely Italian spoken in New York, which she attributed to widespread use of computerized language lessons and an emphasis on education.
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I just bashed my way through a Petrarch sonnet with Latin and a forty-year-old Langenscheidt dictionary, so this has to be closer!
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Se Virgilio et Homero avessin visto
quel sole il qual vegg'io con gli occhi miei,
tutte lor forze in dar fama a costei
avrian posto, et l'un stil coll'altro misto:
di che sarebbe Enea turbato et tristo,
Achille, Ulixe et gli altri semidei,
et quel che resse anni cinquantasei
sí bene il mondo et quel ch'ancise Egisto.
Quel fior anticho di vertuti et d'arme
come sembiante stella ebbe con questo
novo fior d'onestate et di bellezze!
Ennio di quel cantò ruvido carme,
di quest'altro io: et oh pur non molesto
gli sia il mio ingegno, e 'l mio lodar non sprezze!
If Vergil and Homer had gotten a look at
that sun which I see with my own eyes,
all their power would have gone to
her renown, one style mixed with the other:
leaving Aeneas troubled and sad,
Achilles, Ulysses and the other demigods,
and the one who for fifty-six years supported
the world so well, and the one whom Aegisthus slew.
That ancient flower of virtue and arms
had a similar star as this
new flower of honesty and beauty!
Ennius sang of him in rough song,
as I do this other: and oh, may my art not be
a nuisance to her, and may she not scorn my praise!
(I am not even attempting the sonnet. But this is someone I need to read more of and soon.)
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Thank *God* Virgil and Homer et al. *didn't* get a look at her, then... I like having some heroic tales, thank you very much; we've got plenty of love sonnets.
I like my love poems a little more, oh, I don't know--like what you wrote about the fisher boy (sorry to harp on that but I've also been listening to that song you posted of the same name...)
Way to go on the translation, though! I like how you say Aeneas in Italian: Enea. That's got a nice sound to it.
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Probably? I think most of them are.
I like my love poems a little more, oh, I don't know--like what you wrote about the fisher boy (sorry to harp on that but I've also been listening to that song you posted of the same name...)
It's a very good song. And I'm glad you like the poem.
(and why must you suddenly read lots of Petrarch?)
(Because I needed a random line about sleeplessness that could plausibly pop into the head of my narrator in the Venetian timeline: he would not have the same stock of quotations as an English-speaker, but even allowing for fudged history, I wanted someone that even an indifferent student would have found it impossible to avoid. I still ended up going with a line from Catullus, but in the process I discovered that I like Petrarch. I need a forty-hour day.)
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A forty-hour day would be brilliant.
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Hope you have lots of fun with this.
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