Read "Qual Mio Destin, Qual Forza o Qual Inganno" by Francesco Petrarca online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
THOUGH HER EYES DESTROY HIM, HE CANNOT TEAR HIMSELF AWAY.
What destiny of mine, what fraud or force, / Unarm'd again conducts me to the field, / Where never came I but with shame to yield / 'Scape I or fall, which better is or worse? / Not worse, but better; from so sweet a source / Shine in my heart those lights, so bright reveal'd / The fatal fire, e'en now as then, which seal'd / My doom, though twenty years have roll'd their course / I feel death's messengers when those dear eyes, / Dazzling me from afar, I see appear, / And if on me they turn as she draw near, / Love with such sweetness tempts me then and tries, / Tell it I cannot, nor recall in sooth, / For wit and language fail to reach the truth!
MACGREGOR.