Guido Cavalcanti
Guido Cavalcanti Poems
Light do I see within my Lady's eyes
And loving spirits in its plenisphere
Which bear in strange delight on my heart's care
Till Joy's awakened from that sepulchre.
...
Fresh new rose
Delighting Spring,
By field and stream,
Singing gaily,
...
As I’ve no hope of returning ever,
Little ballad, lightly, softly,
Go yourself, to Tuscany,
...
Perch’i’ no spero di tornar giammai,
ballatetta, in Toscana,
va’ tu, leggera e piana,
dritt’ a la donna mia,
...
0 SLUGGISH, hard, ingrate, what doest thou?
Poor sinner, folded round with heavy sin,
Whose life to find out joy alone is bent.
...
Deep in thoughts of love, I came
On two young maids,
One sang: ‘It rains
On us, the joy of love.’
...
You have, in you, the leaves and flowers
All that shines and all that’s sweet to see:
Greater than the sun your face in splendour,
...
O, my lady, have you not seen One
Who laid his hand on my heart, when
I answered you so softly, tamely,
Because I feared his blows?
...
Who is this that comes and all admire her,
And makes the air tremble with her brightness,
Brings Love with her, so that none who sees her
...
A quick perceptiveness, a woman's charm,
a windless city white with falling snow,
the gallant courtesy of men-at-arms,
...
A lady asks me - I speak for that reason
Of an effect - that so often - is daring
And so haughty - he's called Amore:
...
Within the gentle heart Love shelters him
As birds within the green shade of the grove.
Before the gentle heart, in nature's scheme,
...
Guido Cavalcanti Biography
Guido Cavalcanti (between 1250 and 1259 – August 1300) was a Florentine poet, as well as an intellectual influence on his best friend, Dante. His poems in their original Italian are available on Wikisource here. Cavalcanti was born in Florence at a time when the comune was beginning its economic, political, intellectual and artistic ascendancy as one of the leading cities of Renaissance. The disunited Italian peninsula was dominated by a political particularism that pitted each city-state one against the other, often with this factionalism contributing the fractious and sometimes violent political environments of each comune. The domination of medieval religious interpretations of reality, morality and society were challenged by a rise of new urban culture across Europe that gradually supplanted rural, local, ecclesiastical and feudal ways of thinking. There was an accompanying return to study, interpret and emulate the classics, known as a revival of antiquity. New secular views laid the foundations for modern life in the Western Civilization. As Jacob Burckhardt, Swiss historian and author of the classic The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy described, “It was not the revival of antiquity alone, but its union with the genius of the Italian people which achieved the conquest of the western world.” In sum, Cavalcanti lived during and helped shape this time of great innovation that was spurred on by a desire to explore, create and experiment with new things. Cavalcanti is best remembered for belonging to that small but influential group of Tuscan poets that started what is now known as Dolce Stil Novo, to which he contributed the following (note: translations provided in parentheses do not match the titles by which are widely known in English manuals but are meant to be a more literal rendering of the Italian originals): "Rosa fresca novella" (New, Fresh Rose), "Avete in vo' li fior e la verdura" (You Are Flowers in the Meadow), "Biltà di donna" (A Woman's Beauty), Chi è questa che vèn (Who's This Lady That Comes My Way), "Li mie' foll'occhi" (My Crazy Eyes), "L'anima Mia" (My Soul), "Guido Orlandi", "Da più a uno" (From Many to One), "In un boschetto" (In A Grove), "Per ch'io no spero" (Because I Do Not Hope), "Voi che per gli occhi mi passaste il core" (see below), and "Donna me prega" (A Lady's Orders), a masterpiece of lyric verse and a small treatise on his philosophy of love. Starting from the model provided by the French troubadours, they took Italian poetry a step further and inaugurated the volgare illustre, that higher standard of Italian language that survives almost unchanged to the present day. The founder of this school, Guido Guinizzelli, a law professor at Bologna’s University wrote the first poem of this kind, a poem whose importance does not so much lie in its literary merits but in outlining what would the fundamentals of the Stil Novo program, which was further perfected by a second generation of poets, including Dante, Cino da Pistoia, Lapo Gianni, and Guido himself.)
The Best Poem Of Guido Cavalcanti
Ballata 5: Light Do I See Within My Lady's Eyes
Light do I see within my Lady's eyes
And loving spirits in its plenisphere
Which bear in strange delight on my heart's care
Till Joy's awakened from that sepulchre.
That which befalls me in my Lady's presence
Bars explanation intellectual.
I seem to see a lady wonderful
Spring forth between her lips, one whom no sense
Can fully tell the mind of, and one whence
Another, in beauty, springeth marvelous,
From whom a star goes forth and speaketh thus:
'Now my salvation is gone forth from thee.'
There where this Lady's loveliness appeareth,
Is heard a voice which goes before her ways
And seems to sing her name with such sweet praise
That my mouth fears to speak what name she beareth,
And my heart trembles for the grace she weareth,
While far in my soul's deep the sighs astir
Speak thus: 'Look well! For if thou look on her,
Then shalt thou see her virtue risen in heaven.'
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4/23/2024 3:14:01 AM # 1.0.0.1119
Another poem by Guido Cavalcanti (Italian text) : ''Io vidi li occhi dove Amor si mise'' Io vidi li occhi dove Amor si mise quando mi fece di sé pauroso, che mi guardar com' io fosse noioso: allora dico che 'l cor si divise; e se non fosse che la donna rise, i' parlerei di tal guisa doglioso, ch'Amor medesmo ne farei cruccioso, che fe' lo immaginar che mi conquise. Dal ciel si mosse un spirito, in quel punto che quella donna mi degnò guardare, e vennesi a posar nel mio pensero: elli mi conta sì d'Amor lo vero, che ogni sua virtù veder mi pare sì com' io fosse nello suo cor giunto.