XV

Voi ch'ascoltate in rime sparse il suono Di quei sospiri ond'io nudriva il core In sul mio primo giovenile errore, Quand' era in parte altr'uom da quel ch'i' sono; Del vario stile, in ch'io piango e ragiono Fra le vane speranze e 'l van dolore, Ove sia chi per prova intenda amore, Spero trovar pietà, non che perdono. Ma ben veggi' or, sì come al popol tutto Favola fui gran tempo: onde sovente Di me medesmo meco mi vergogno: E del mio vaneggiar vergogna è 'l frutto, E 'l pentirsi, e 'l conoscer chiaramente Che quanto piace al mondo è breve sogno.

XV

O ye who trace through scattered verse the sound Of those long sighs wherewith I fed my heart Amid youth's errors, when in greater part That man unlike this present man was found; For the mixed strain which here I do compound Of empty hopes and pains that vainly start, Whatever soul hath truly felt love's smart, With pity and with pardon will abound. But now I see full well how long I earned All men's reproof; and oftentimes my soul Lies crushed by its own grief; and it doth seem For such misdeed shame is the fruitage whole, And wild repentance and the knowledge learned That worldly joy is still a short, short dream.

FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY COPIES PRINTED AT THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE, IN THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER, MDCCCCIII. NUMBER 426

[Transcriber's Note: Below is a list of printer errors that have been corrected in the Italian sonnets, by reference to the 1964 critical edition of Il Canzoniere edited by Gianfranco Contini, available at Liber Liber, www.liberliber.it. The translator of this book probably used as his source an edition in which spelling and punctuation were somewhat modernized; these modernizations have not been altered in this e-book. Spacing of elisions (such as "ch'ascolti") has been normalized. The original book was printed almost entirely in italics, which are not marked as such in this e-text. Printer errors in the English portions of this book have been corrected without note.

Sonnet Line Error Correction II 10 a'udendo d'udendo III 14 Che Ché IV 13 che ché VI 4 Che Ché VI 12 si sì VII 9 doglia doglio VIII 9 Che Ché

The sonnets in this book correspond to the following numbers in Il Canzoniere:

This book Il Canzoniere 1. 162 Lieti fiori 2. 167 Quando Amor 3. 227 Aura che quelle chiome 4. 261 Qual donna attende 5. 161 O passi sparsi 6. 156 I' vidi in terra 7. 292 Gli occhi di ch'io parlai 8. 294 Soleasi nel mio cor 9. 302 Levommi il mio pensier 10. 351 Dolci durezze 11. 346 Gli angeli eletti 12. 361 Dicemi spesso 13. 353 Vago augelletto 14. 7 La gola e 'l sonno 15. 1 Voi ch'ascoltate]