Updates, Live: Petrarca

Statue of Petrarch in Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Francesco_Petrarca2.jpg)
no copyright infringement intended

His real name had been Petracco, but he remained known under the Latinized form, as Petrarca. The English language countries went further, referring him as Petrarque. I would prefer the Latinized form, as it was this way I firstly heard about him in school. He is considered the Father of Humanism.

Let's start with the sonnet that opens his Canzoniere:

Voi ch'ascoltate in rime sparse il suono
di quei sospiri ond'io nudriva 'l core
in sul mio primo giovenile errore
quand'era in parte altr'uom da quel ch'i' sono,

del vario stile in ch'io piango et ragiono
fra le vane speranze e 'l van dolore,
ove sia chi per prova intenda amore,
spero trovar pietà, nonché perdono.

Ma ben veggio or sí come al popol tutto
favola fui gran tempo, onde sovente
di me mesdesmo meco mi vergogno;

et del mio vaneggiar vergogna è 'l frutto,
e 'l pentersi, e 'l conoscer chiaramente
che quanto piace al mondo è breve sogno.

(http://www.italica.it/canzoniere.html)

Sonnet form: abba abba cdc cdc

Here is an English rendering, done by A. S. Kline:

You who hear the sound, in scattered rhymes,
of those sighs on which I fed my heart,
in my first vagrant youthfulness,
when I was partly other than I am,

I hope to find pity, and forgiveness,
for all the modes in which I talk and weep,
between vain hope and vain sadness,
in those who understand love through its trials.

Yet I see clearly now I have become
an old tale amongst all these people, so that
it often makes me ashamed of myself;

and shame is the fruit of my vanities,
and remorse, and the clearest knowledge
of how the world's delight is a brief dream.

(http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html)

I found a video with this sonnet, using scenes from a great Chinese movie that I recommend to all of you, The Road Home.