Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79. | | | | Vaucluse | | To Vaucluse | | Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) |
| | Petrarch’s Sonnets on Vaucluse. VII.
Translated by Anna Seward
FORTUNATE vale! exulting hill, dear plain, | |
| Where morn and eve my soul’s fair idol strayed, | |
| While all your winds that murmured through the glade | |
| Stole her sweet breath; yet, yet, your paths retain | |
| Prints of her step by fount, whose floods remain | 5 |
| In depth unfathomed, mid the rocks that shade, | |
| With caverned arch, their sleep. Ye streams, that played | |
| Around her limbs in summer’s ardent reign, | |
| The soft resplendence of those azure eyes | |
| Tinged ye with living light. The envied claim | 10 |
| These blest distinctions give, my lyre, my sighs, | |
| My songs record, and from their poet’s flame | |
| Bid thy wild vale, its rocks and streams arise, | |
| Associates still of their bright mistress’ fame. | | | | |
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