Per seguir la sperança

Per seguir la sperança

To pursue the hope

Per seguir la sperança che m'ancide,
Donna, vo cercand'io
Di celato tener el mie disio.

Nè vogli'a tte, cagion di tanta pena,
Questo greve tormento discovire.

Pero che lla ragion pur mi rafrena,
Onde disposto son così morire.

Ma ben ti pregho, amor, de! non soffrire,
Ch'io pera in tanto oblio,
Falle palese tu el voler mio.

To pursue the hope which kills me,
Lady, I seek
to keep my desire concealed.

Neither do I want to reveal my great
torment to you, the cause of so much pain

For reason still holds me back,
and so I am ready to die.

But I beg you, Love, not to let me perish
in such oblivion:
That you yourself might reveal to her my desire.

(Lyrics taken from the critical edition of Landini's works, The works of Francesco Landini, ed. by Leonard Ellinwood, with textual collation by William A. McLaughlin (Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, 1945), p.271-72.)

Other pages in Arts: Music