Read "Se Voi Poteste Per Turbati Segni" by Francesco Petrarca online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
HE ENTREATS LAURA NOT TO HATE THE HEART FROM WHICH SHE CAN NEVER BE / ABSENT.
If, but by angry and disdainful sign, / By the averted head and downcast sight, / By readiness beyond thy sex for flight, / Deaf to all pure and worthy prayers of mine, / Thou canst, by these or other arts of thine, / 'Scape from my breast -- where Love on slip so slight / Grafts every day new boughs -- of such despite / A fitting cause I then might well divine: / For gentle plant in arid soil to be / Seems little suited: so it better were, / And this e'en nature dictates, thence to stir.
But since thy destiny prohibits thee / Elsewhere to dwell, be this at least thy care / Not always to sojourn in hatred there.
MACGREGOR.