Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374)

Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Qual donna attende a gloriosa fama

DOTH any maiden seek the glorious fame

Of chastity, of strength, of courtesy?

Gaze in the eyes of that sweet enemy

Whom all the world doth as my lady name!

How honour grows, and pure devotion’s flame,

How truth is joined with graceful dignity,

There thou may’st learn, and what the path may be

To that high heaven which doth her spirit claim;

There learn soft speech, beyond all poet’s skill,

And softer silence, and those holy ways

Unutterable, untold by human heart.

But the infinite beauty that all eyes doth fill,

This none can copy! since its lovely rays

Are given by God’s pure grace, and not by art.