DGR's note to his translation
comments on the poem as yet another example of âthese poets rating
one another for the want of constancy in loveâ. The translation's evident
connection to The
Blessed Damozel, however, underscores DGR's effort to
establish his own credentials of true constancy. In his case, however, the constancy
at stake is an aesthetic/cultural oneâto the poetry his translations
mean to exalt and imitate. In an odd but very striking way, the âcourteous
dutyâ that marks the modesty of a proper lover (and artist) gets far more
strongly realized in DGR's translation than in the original sonnet. DGR's note
underscores this difference by pointing out the contentious spirit that runs through
so much of the poetry he is translating. Compagni charges Cavalcanti with coarseness
as well as pride in trying to âdraw the women from their balconiesâ instead
of trying to âmount upon a golden stairâ to the elevated position of the lady. It
is much to the point that Compagni
associates Cavalcanti with âwomenâ rather than with a single lady.
One final matter must be noted: DGR's use of the word âdrawâ in the
final line. Although it is questionable whether DGR, at this early point in his career,
consciously used this word in a double sense, he would later do so in a number of
remarkable cases and ways. See for example the crucial three-poem sequence in
âThe
House of Lifeâ:
âSoul's
Beautyâ,
âBody's
Beautyâ, and
âThe
Monochordâ.
DGR's source text, as he notes in
The
Early Italian Poets (p. 217n), was Giovanni
Crescimbeni's
L'istoria
della volgar poesie (first published in one volume in Rome, 1698 and subsequently expanded to 6 vols., and published in Venice in 1731, which was the edition DGR used.)
This collection contains 10 texts and images, including:
The Early Italian Poets
Scholarly Commentary
IntroductionÂ
DGR's note to his translation comments on the poem as yet another example of âthese poets rating one another for the want of constancy in loveâ. The translation's evident connection to The Blessed Damozel, however, underscores DGR's effort to establish his own credentials of true constancy. In his case, however, the constancy at stake is an aesthetic/cultural oneâto the poetry his translations mean to exalt and imitate. In an odd but very striking way, the âcourteous dutyâ that marks the modesty of a proper lover (and artist) gets far more strongly realized in DGR's translation than in the original sonnet. DGR's note underscores this difference by pointing out the contentious spirit that runs through so much of the poetry he is translating. Compagni charges Cavalcanti with coarseness as well as pride in trying to âdraw the women from their balconiesâ instead of trying to âmount upon a golden stairâ to the elevated position of the lady. It is much to the point that Compagni associates Cavalcanti with âwomenâ rather than with a single lady.
One final matter must be noted: DGR's use of the word âdrawâ in the final line. Although it is questionable whether DGR, at this early point in his career, consciously used this word in a double sense, he would later do so in a number of remarkable cases and ways. See for example the crucial three-poem sequence in âThe House of Lifeâ: âSoul's Beautyâ, âBody's Beautyâ, and âThe Monochordâ.
DGR's source text, as he notes in The Early Italian Poets (p. 217n), was Giovanni Crescimbeni's L'istoria della volgar poesie (first published in one volume in Rome, 1698 and subsequently expanded to 6 vols., and published in Venice in 1731, which was the edition DGR used.)
Textual History: CompositionÂ
Probably an early translation, late 1840s.
Printing HistoryÂ
The translation was first published in 1861 in The Early Italian Poets; it was reprinted in 1874 in Dante and his Circle.