Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888.
Whatso Is FairGuido Cavalcanti (12551300)
Translated by Henry Francis Cary
Beltà di donna e di saccente core
Beltà di donna e di saccente core
W
And gentle knights caparison’d and gay;
The singing of sweet birds to love inclined,
And gallant barks that cut the watery way;
The white snow falling without any wind,
The cloudless sky at break of early day,
The crystal stream, with flowers the meadow lined,
Silver, and gold, and azure for array:—
To him that sees the beauty and the worth
Whose power doth meet and in my lady dwell,
All seem as vile, their price and lustre gone;
And, as the heaven is higher than the earth,
So she in knowledge doth each one excel,
Not slow to good in nature like her own.