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Brave radiant lady, living apart far from the crowd, to me you seem so happy in your solitude you have left behind the pain women who do not love men but God cannot know. Desire comes to an end at long last on that mountain the crying stops and you and I are one. If I can walk in your footsteps, I'll find strength to build my life anew. Your lonely cave, this cliff, is my island rock, the sun whose fires I see warms all gentle souls. When I think thoughts like these, I feel the world's grip slacken and am less vile, oh pray for me to God- - I can only remain free next to you. |
An image of the Italian text from Visconti's 1840 edition |
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Notes: From V CXIV:274. See also B S1:121:145; MSs L, V2 (Ve2?); CASI, RA;Valgrisi 122. A first in a series to Mary Magdalene (AB "VC & Minor Lyricists, GSLI 157 (1980), 397-8, it may also be to Del Vasto's wife, Maria d'Aragona d'Avalos (frequently alone, her husband openly unfaithful). Tordi thought the sonnet inspired by Bernardino Ochino (Codice delle rime [L], 32-3, n74; "VC @ Orvieto," Bolletino della Societa Umbra di Storia patria, I (1895) 494. There were many prayer books which pictured the Magdalene living in an isolated cave on a cliff, see Malvern's Venus in Sackcloth, pp. 71-99). Key |
