Now, returning to the subject, I say that after my blessedness was denied me, I met with such sadness that leaving the crowd I went to a lonely place to bathe the ground with bitter tears. And when this weeping had relieved me a little I shut myself in my room where I could grieve without being heard: and there, begging pity of the lady of courtesy, and saying: ‘Love, help your faithful one’, I fell asleep weeping like a beaten child.
It happened that about the middle of my sleep I seemed to see a young man dressed in the whitest of white sitting next to me in my room, and, deeply thoughtful in his aspect, he gazed at me where I lay: and when he had gazed a while it seemed to me he called to me sighing, and said these words: ‘Fili mi, tempus est ut praetermittantur simulacra nostra: My son, it is time to set aside our pretences.’ Then it seemed to me that I knew him, because he called to me as he had many times called to me in my dreams: and regarding him it seemed to me that he was weeping piteously, and seemed to be waiting for some word from me: so that, taking heart, I began to speak to him so: ‘Lord of nobility, why do you weep?’ And he said these words to me: ‘Ego tanquam centrum circuli, cui simili modo se habent circumferentiae partes: tu autem non sic: I am as the centre of a circle, to which the parts of the circumference have a similar relation: you however are not so.’
Then, thinking about his words, it seemed to me he had spoken very obscurely: so that I forced myself to speak and said these words: ‘What is it, lord, that you say to me so obscurely?’ And he replied to me in the common tongue: ‘Do not demand more than is helpful to you.’ And so I began then to discuss the greeting which had been denied me, and I asked the reason: to which the reply came from him to me: ‘Our Beatrice heard from certain people, speaking of you, that the lady whom I named to you on the road of sighs, has met with some discourtesy from you: and so this most graceful one, who is the opposite of all discourtesy, did not deign to greet your person, fearing you might show discourtesy.
Since it is a fact that in truth your secret is partly known to her through lengthy observation, I wish you to say certain words in verse in which you will declare the power I have had over you through her, and how you were hers, wholly, from your childhood. And for that demand testimony of him who knows, and say how you beg him to tell her of it: and I, who am he, will tell her freely: and in this way she will come to know your will, knowing which she will unpick the words of the informants. Make those words act as a go-between so that you do not speak to her directly: which is not appropriate: and do not send them anywhere without me, where they might be heard by her, but have them adorned by sweet music, in which I can reside at all the times when I am needed.’
And saying these words he vanished, and my dream was broken. When I reflected on it, I found that this vision appeared to me in the ninth hour of the day: and before I went out of my room I decided to make a ballata in which I would carry out what my lord had commanded me: and later I made this ballata, that begins: ‘Ballata, i´ voi’.
Ballad, I would have you find Amor,
and go with him before my Lady,
so that my cause, that you sing,
my lord can speak of with her.
You go, ballad, so courteously,
that without companions
you may dare to go anywhere:
but if you wish to travel safely,
first find Amor,
since maybe it is not wise to go without him:
for she who is the one who must hear you,
if it is as I think, is truly angered with me:
if you are not accompanied by him,
you will be taken lightly, with dishonour.
With sweet sounds, when you are with her,
begin these words,
after you have sought her pity:
‘My Lady, he who sent me to you,
wishes, if it please you,
that if he has an excuse, I may present it.
Love is one, who through your beauty,
will make him, if you wish, change his aspect:
so if it made him gaze at another,
think you, it did not change his heart.’
Say to her: ‘My Lady, his heart is fixed
with so firm a faith,
that all his thought is set on serving you:
he was yours at first, and could not waver.’
If she does not believe you,
tell her to ask Amor, who knows the truth:
and at the end make a humble prayer,
that if it displeases her to pardon him,
let her send word, and order me to die,
and her servant will show true obedience.
And say to him, who is the key to pity,
before you take your leave,
that he knowing it plead my cause well:
‘By the grace of my sweet notes
stay you there with her,
and for your servant plead, as you will,
and if she pardon him through your prayer,
let her show an aspect of sweet peace.’
My gentle ballad, if you please,
choose the moment that will bring you honour.
This ballata is divided into three parts: in the first part I say where it should journey, and I encourage it to travel more safely, and I say what company it should be in it if wishes to go safely and without any danger: in the second I say what it is it needs to make known: in the third I license it to go when it wishes, recommending its movements to the embrace of fortune. The second part begins with: ‘Con dolze sono: With sweet sounds’: the third with: ‘Gentil ballata: Gentle ballad.’
Someone might raise an objection against me and say that it is not known whom I address in the second person, since the ballata is no more than the words that I wrote: and so I say that I intend to resolve this doubt and clarify it later in this little book regarding an even more difficult passage: and then let him who doubts understand, or let him who wishes to object do so at that time.
|
