Sonnets, Songs, and Triumphs

YOU WHO listen: Although the present sonnet was placed by Master Francesco Petrarch in this elegant and most sweet work in the position of a preface, it was not, however, the first he composed: but the last of all, as can be clearly understood from its meaning. It seems to me he did this primarily to be able to remedy in some part the infamy original: "infamia." In this context, it refers to a loss of reputation or being the subject of public gossip. into which he had fallen among the senseless common folk through various slanders regarding his opinion of his beloved Lady Laura—about whom we spoke extensively in the proem The introductory preface found on the earlier pages of this edition.. And although we should place no value on those who blame us unworthily—whether out of ignorance or hypocrisy, for true praise is that which is called such when it proceeds from a man who is himself praised and excellent—nevertheless, not caring what others think or say of us seems to proceed either from negligence or arrogance. Our most excellent and prudent poet, wishing to avoid these two vices, did not want his silence to allow the talk of the wicked to corrupt the opinion of those with healthy senses. Even in his having written in these amorous rhymes, he demonstrates that such error proceeded from his youthful age; no one who has been young can be unaware through experience of how great that fervor and impulse is. Therefore, he asks all those who listen to his amorous sonnets and songs to consider the insurmountable forces of love—which, if they wish to tell the truth, however much it may be lightly blamed, yet from its hidden—

SONNET I.

Y ou who listen in scat-
tered rhymes to the sound original: "rime sparse." This is the famous opening of Petrarch's collection, which he titled in Latin Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (Fragments of Vernacular Matters).
Of those sighs with which I
nourished my heart
In my first youthful
error,
When I was in part a dif-
ferent man from who I am now,

F or the varied style in which I weep and reason
Between vain hopes and vain sorrow,
Wherever there is someone who understands love through experience,
I hope to find pity, not just forgiveness.

B ut I see well now how for a long time I was
A laughingstock to all the people: so that often
I am ashamed of myself within myself;

A nd the fruit of my wandering is shame,
And repentance, and knowing clearly
That whatever pleases the world is a brief dream.

—and insidious blows, no one seems able to defend themselves entirely except the dead and the senseless. And therefore, he does not hesitate to affirm that he hopes not only to find forgiveness, but also compassion from all those who have felt his burning arrows of love through true experience. And to show himself to be entirely free from that archer A reference to Cupid, the god of love., by whose arrows he had been wounded with amorous fires for many, many years, he adds that three things have finally resulted for him. First, the shame he has for the infamy in which he had fallen because of such love. Then, the repentance for having committed such an error. And lastly, the clear knowledge that all worldly pleasures last but a short time and are vain. Therefore, directing his sweetest rhymes as if explaining the text word-for-word, we shall say: YOU: Whoever you may be who listen in scattered rhymes, attending to and hearing my rhymes of sonnets and songs scattered and disseminated among the learned and the unlearned. THE SOUND: the resonant harmonies and words of those sighs with which I nourished my heart: because the heart being impassioned by the intolerable impulse of love, if it did not vent itself somewhat by sighing, it could easily expire; whereas through sighing it preserves itself. IN MY first youthful error Filelfo interprets "error" here not just as a mistake, but as a wandering away from reason.: since young people—both through the unbridled heat of their abundant blood and because they do not yet have full perfection of the intellect at that age—are easily led to err; error being nothing other than an approval of falsehood in the [intellect]...