Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888.
Riding some days agone in piteous moodDante Alighieri (12651321)
Translated by Sir Theodore Martin
From the “Vita Nuova”
From the “Vita Nuova”
R
Heart sick and weary with the journey’s fret,
Full in the middle of the way I met
Love in a pilgrim’s habit, worn and rude.
His air, methought, was saddened and subdued,
As he had been despoilèd of his sway;
And he came, sadly sighing, up the way,
With downcast eyes, unwilling to be viewed.
When he beheld me, calling me by name,
I come, he said, from yon far region, now,
Where dwelt thy heart, while that to me seemed fit,
And for new service back am bringing it.
Then I so wrapt in thought of him became,
That he had vanished, and I know not how.