| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | Ballata. Concerning a Shepherd-maid | | By Guido Cavalcanti (1255?–1300) |
| | (Translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
WITHIN a copse I met a shepherd-maid, | |
| More fair, I said, than any star to see. | |
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| She came with waving tresses pale and bright, | |
| With rosy cheer, and loving eyes of flame, | |
| Guiding the lambs beneath her wand aright. | 5 |
| Her naked feet still had the dews on them, | |
| As, singing like a lover, so she came; | |
| Joyful, and fashion’d for all ecstasy. | |
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| I greeted her at once, and question made | |
| What escort had she through the woods in spring? | 10 |
| But with soft accents she replied and said | |
| That she was all alone there, wandering; | |
| Moreover: “Do you know, when the birds sing, | |
| My heart’s desire is for a mate,” said she. | |
| |
| While she was telling me this wish of hers, | 15 |
| The birds were all in song throughout the wood. | |
| “Even now then,” said my thought, “the time recurs, | |
| With mine own longing to assuage her mood.” | |
| And so, in her sweet favour’s name, I sued | |
| That she would kiss there and embrace with me. | 20 |
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| She took my hand to her with amorous will, | |
| And answered that she gave me all her heart, | |
| And drew me where the leaf is fresh and still, | |
| Where spring the wood-flowers in the shade apart. | |
| And on that day, by Joy’s enchanted art, | 25 |
| There Love in very presence seem’d to be. | | | | |
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