Read "Ne Mai Pietosa Madre Al Caro Figlio" by Francesco Petrarca online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
HER COUNSEL ALONE AFFORDS HIM RELIEF.
Ne'er did fond mother to her darling son, / Or zealous spouse to her beloved mate, / Sage counsel give, in perilous estate, / With such kind caution, in such tender tone, / As gives that fair one, who, oft looking down / On my hard exile from her heavenly seat, / With wonted kindness bends upon my fate / Her brow, as friend or parent would have done: / Now chaste affection prompts her speech, now fear, / Instructive speech, that points what several ways / To seek or shun, while journeying here below; / Then all the ills of life she counts, and prays / My soul ere long may quit this terrene sphere: / And by her words alone I'm soothed and freed from woe.
NOTT.
Ne'er to the son, in whom her age is blest, / The anxious mother -- nor to her loved lord / The wedded dame, impending ill to ward, / With careful sighs so faithful counsel press'd, / As she, who, from her high eternal rest, / Bending -- as though my exile she deplored -- / With all her wonted tenderness restored, / And softer pity on her brow impress'd! / Now with a mother's fears, and now as one / Who loves with chaste affection, in her speech / She points what to pursue and what to shun! / Our years retracing of long, various grief, / Wooing my soul at higher good to reach, / And while she speaks, my bosom finds relief!
DACRE.