C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Vaucluse has Become to him a Scene of Pain
By Petrarch (13041374)
Translation of Maria Eugenia Wrottesley
T
When from rude rocks I view the smiling land
Where she was born, who held my life in hand
From its first bud till blossoms turned to fruit.
To heaven she’s gone, and I’m left destitute
To mourn her loss, and cast around in pain
These wearied eyes, which, seeking her in vain
Where’er they turn, o’erflow with grief acute;
There’s not a root or stone amongst these hills,
Nor branch nor verdant leaf ’midst these soft glades,
Nor in the valley flowery herbage grows,
Nor liquid drop the sparkling fount distils,
Nor savage beast that shelters in these shades,
But knows how sharp my grief—how deep my woes.