Ah little cloud

 

Deh, nuvoletta che’n ombra d’Amore

Negli occhi miei di subito apparisti;

Abbi pietà del cuore che tu feristi

Che spera in te, e desiando muore. 

 

Tu nuvoletta, in forma più che umana,

Foco mettesti dentro alla mia mente

Col tuo parlar, ch’ancide:

  

Poi con atto di spirito cocente

Criasti speme, che’n parte mi è sana,

Laddove tu mi ride,

Deh non guardare, perchè a lei mi fide ;

  

Ma drizza gli occhi al gran disio che m’ arde,

Chè mille donne già per esser tarde

Sentito han pena dell’altrui dolore.  

Ah little cloud that in Love's shadow lief

Upon mine eyes so suddenly alightest,

Take some faint pity on the heart thou smitest,

That hopes in thee, desires, dies, in brief.

  

Ah little cloud of more than human fashion

Thou settest a flame within my mind’s mid space

With thy deathly speech that grieveth;

  

Then as a fiery spirit in thy ways

Creates hope, in part a rightful passion,

Yet where thy sweet smile giveth

His grace, look not! For in Her my faith liveth.

  

Think on my high desire whose flame’s so great

That nigh a thousand who were come too late,

Have felt the torment of another’s grief. 

 

REFERENCES

Alighieri, Dante. “Ballata.” The Canzoniere of Dante Alighieri. Ed. and Trans. Charles Lyell. London: John Murray, 1835. 330. Free online

Pound, Ezra. [1909] “La Nuvoletta.” Ezra Pound Poems and Translations. Ed. Richard Sieburth. New York: Library of America, 2003. 149.

 

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