|
My friend, no mind, not even yours, can speak of God's illimitable offering-- as that vast sea slowly engulfs you with such sweet resistless force drawing you into another life, there's no discourse. Say you don't free yourself of worldly ties, don't yield totally, as your soul consents to this welcome, her hold on the tongue fades, the body's knot loosens. In God's presence, we hide what is unworthy so the soul feels, sees, only love, pleasure, radiance, and, when she returns to herself, bears the imprint of that white light, a relic that shines clear through your heart into my eyes. |
An image of the Italian text from Visconti's 1840 edition |
|
Notes: From V CXCVI:35. See also B S1:144:157; no MSs; Valgrisi 145. No translation. Addressed to a "donna fedel". It could be to Del Vasto's sister, Costanza d'Avalos Piccolomini, Duchess of Amalfi, who wrote 3 devotional sonnets to VC (printed by Ruscelli at the back of his edition), to whom VC wrote 3 letters of religious meditation. VC wrote a letter to the Prioress and nuns at Viterbo mourning the break up of their Evangelical community, & it could be to one of these women; see PSimoncelli Evangelismo italiano del Cinquecento, pp 464-5. It could be to Innocenza Gualterruzzi, VCs secretary's daughter, whose education VC superintended and who became very religious. Key |
