Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79.
On His Return to Vaucluse after Lauras Death
By Francesco Petrarca (13041374)Petrarch’s Sonnets on Vaucluse. V.
Translated by Francis Wrangham
Translated by Francis Wrangham
V
Stream, which my flowing tears have often fed;
Beasts, fluttering birds, and ye who in the bed
Of Cabrieres’ wave display your speckled dyes;
Air, hushed to rest and softened by my sighs;
Dear path, whose mazes lone and sad I tread;
Hill of delight,—though now delight is fled,—
To rove whose haunts Love still my foot decoys;
Well I retain your old unchanging face!
Myself how changed! in whom, for joy’s light throng,
Infinite woes their constant mansion find!
Here bloomed my bliss; and I your tracks retrace,
To mark whence upward to her heaven she sprung,
Leaving her beauteous spoil, her robe of flesh behind!