Thursday, April 6, 2023

Alone Am I

Christine de Pisan or Cristina da Pizzano (± 1363 – ± 1431), Ballade XI. (translation found in William A. Nitze's and E. Preston Dargan's book, A History of French Literature, 1922):

        Alone am I, alone I wish to be,
        Alone my sweetest friend hath left me here,
        Alone am I, in my sole company,
        Alone in sorrow bent, and without cheer.
        Alone am I in langurous disgrace,
        Alone far more than wanderer from God's grace,
        Alone, without a friend, the world I face. . . .

        Seulete sui et, seulete vueil estre,
        Seulete m'a mon douz ami laissiée;
        Seulete sui, sanz compaignon ne maistre,
        Seulete sui, dolente et courrouciée,
        Seulete sui, en langueur mesaisiée,
        Seulete sui, olus que nulle esgarée,
        Seulete sui, sanz ami demourée. . . .

No comments:

Post a Comment

The Certainty Of Being Alone

Hippolyte Taine, A Tour Through the Pyrenees , tr. J. Safford Fiske (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1875), 149-51: This valley is solitar...