(_Transl. by_ D.G. ROSSETTI.)
Cino da Pistoia says in epigrammatic brevity:
You want to know the inmost core of love?
'Tis art and guerdon of a noble heart.
A wonderful canzone by Guinicelli contains the following verses:
A song she seems among the rest and these
Have all their beauties in her splendour drowned.
In her is ev'ry grace,--
Simplicity of wisdom, noble speech,
Accomplished loveliness;
All earthly beauty is her diadem.
This truth my song must teach--
My lady is of ladies chosen gem.
(_Transl. by_ D.G. ROSSETTI.)
And Cavalcanti sings:
What's she whose coming rivets all men's eyes,
Who makes the air so tremble with delight,
And thrills so every heart that no man might
Find tongue for words but vents his soul in sighs?
(_Transl. by_ SIR THEODORE MARTIN.)
The sentiment which pervades these verses has lifted us into the higher
sphere which will henceforth be our main theme.
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