233. ‘Qual ventura mi fu, quando da l’uno’

that made my eyes weak and dim, beamed

from one of the two loveliest eyes there ever were,

as I gazed on it in dark and troubled grief!

As I turned back to satisfy my hunger

to see her whom alone in this world I care for,

Heaven and Love were never kinder to me,

even if all other times of grace were counted:

since from my lady’s right eye, rather

the right hand sun, delightful sickness

entered into mine, and did not grieve me:

and something with intelligence and wings,

passed, like a star shooting through the sky:

and Nature and Pity guided its course.

Note: Laura’s eye infection of 231 is cleared by a piece of sympathetic magic, as Petrarch receives the infection.

Notes