Soave cortesìa, vezzosi accenti,
Virtù, senno, valor d'alma gentile,
Spogliato hanno 'l mio cor d'ogni timore;
Or tu gli affetti miei puri innocenti
Pasci cortese, e non cangiar tuo stile
Dolce sollievo de' miei mali, amore!
Others are of a melancholy character; and one or two allude to the death of an infant son, whom she tenderly laments. But the most finished of all her poems is a Sonnet addressed to a lady whom her husband had formerly loved;[61] the sentiment of which is truly beautiful and feminine: never was jealousy so amiably, or so delicately expressed. There is something very dramatic and picturesque in the apostrophe which Faustina addresses to her rival, and in the image of the lady "casting down her large bright eyes:" as well as affecting in the abrupt recoil of feeling in the last lines.
SONETTO.
Donna! che tanto al mio bel sol piacesti!
Che ancor de' pregi tuoi parla sovente,
Lodando, ora il bel crine, ora il ridente
Tuo labbro, ed ora i saggi detti onesti.
Dimmi, quando le voci a lui volgesti
Tacque egli mai, qual uom che nulla sente?
O le turbate luci alteramente,
(Come a me volge) a te volger vedesti?
De tuoi bei lumi, a le due chiare faci
Io so ch'egli arse un tempo, e so che allora—
Ma tu declini al suol gli occhi vivaci!
Veggo il rossor che le tue guance infiora;
Parla, rispondi! Ah non rispondi! taci
Taci! se mi vuoi dir ch'ei t'ama ancora!
TRANSLATION.
Lady, that once so charm'd my life's fair Sun,[62]
That of thy beauties still he talketh oft,—
Thy mouth, fair hair, and words discreet and soft.
Speak! when thou look'dst, was he from silence won?
Or, did he turn those sweet and troubled eyes
On thee, and gaze as now on me he gazeth?
(For ah! I know thy love was then the prize,
And then he felt the grace that still he praiseth.)
But why dost thou those beaming glances turn
Thus downwards? Ha! I see (against thy will)
All o'er thy cheek the crimsoning blushes burn.
Speak out! oh answer me!—yet, no, no,—stay!
Be dumb, be silent, if thou need'st must say
That he who once adored thee, loves thee still.[63]