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Noble soul, you share the proud heritage of the lion of San Marco whose paws control seas and earth--alone among us Venice preserves her ancient liberty and just law, as Heaven has preserved you to be a guide, light through this labyrinth of doubtful steps--in your youth and now your maturity you show us truth's splendor. The lovely Metauro, like Petrarch's Sorgues, look, is milk, its grassy shores emerald in a bed of golden sand--how happy the immortal muse of such poetry-- you preserve her loveliness forever-- she who has you cannot envy Laura. |
An image of the Italian text from Visconti's 1840 edition |
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Notes: From V LXI:61 ( "Bembo gentile del cui gran nome altero"). See also B E14:210; R CXI:321; MSs F1 (No. 97); CASI, Ve2; 1538/9; 1540-2; 1552-9/60; Rota 1760. A second to Pietro Bembo; he may have responded with "Alta Colonna e ferma alle tempeste" or "Caro e sovran de l'eta nostra onor" (V, pp. 400-1, Toffanin, p. 225). Refer to Asolani or B's lyric poems dedicated to Elisabetta Gonzaga Montrefeltro. {The notes from the bottom of the page go here} Key |
