Una candida cerva sopra l`erba

# 2 PETRARCH – WYATT
Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)
Rime sparse 190
Una candida cerva sopra l’erba
verde m’apparve con duo corna d’oro,
fra due riviere all’ombra d’un alloro,
levando ’l sole a la stagione acerba.
Era sua vista si dolce superba
ch’ i’ lasciai per seguirla ogni lavoro,
come l’avaro che ’n cercar tesoro
con diletto l’affanno disacerba.
“Nessun mi tocchi,” al bel collo d’intorno
scritto avea di diamanti et di topazi.
“Libera farmi al mio Cesare parve.”
Et era ’l sol già vòlto al mezzo giorno,
Gli occhi miei stanchi di mirar, non sazi,
Quand‘ io caddi ne l’acqua et ella sparve.
A white doe1 on the green grass appeared to me, with two golden
horns,2 between two rivers,3 in the shade of laurel, when the sun
was rising in the unripe season.
Her look was so sweet and proud that to follow her I left every
task, like the miser who as he seeks treasure sweetens his trouble
with delight.
“Let no one touch me,” she bore written with diamonds and
topazes around her lovely neck. “It has pleased my Caesar to
make me free.”4
1
doe: traditionally sacred to Diana
2
two golden horns: corresponding to Laura’s braids
3
two rivers: the Sorgue and the Durance
4
“Let no one touch me …”: according to Solinus (third century A.D.) three hundred years after
Caesar’s death white stags were found with collars inscribed “Noli me tangere quia Caesaris
sum” (do not touch me for I am Caesar’s). That motto was itself probably a conflation of two
passages in the New Testament, which are given below, in the notes to Wyatt.
my Caesar: my lord; God
And the sun had already turned at midday; my eyes were tired
By looking but not sated, when I fell into the water, and she
disappeared.
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)
Egerton ms. VII5
Who so list to hounte I know where is an hynde;
But as for me, helas, I may no more:
The vayne travaill hath weried me so sore,
I ame of theim that farthest cometh behinde;
Yet may I by no meanes my weried mynde
Drawe from the Diere: but as she fleeth afore
Faynting I folowe; I leve of therefore,
Sithens in a nett I seke to hold the wynde.6
Who list her hount I put him owte of dowbte,
As well as I may spend his tyme in vain:
And graven with Diamondes7 in letters plain
There is written her faier neck rounde abowte:
‘Noli me tangere for Cesars I ame,8
And wylde for to hold though I seme tame’.
5
Though generally acknowledged to derive from Petrarch’s Rime 190, some scholars argue that it
imitates not directly Petrarch but Giovanni Antonio Romanello’s fifteenth-century imitation of
Petrarch, Una cerva gentil.
6
Sithens in a nett I seke to hold the wynde: since in a net I seek to hold the wind: proverb in
Italian and English
7
8
Diamonds were a symbol of steadfastness [sadakat] and chastity [iffet]
John xx.14-17: Jesus said to her: Mary. Then she turned and said to him, in Hebrew: Rabbuni.
Jesus said to her: Do not hold me [noli me tangere], since I have not yet gone up to my father.
Matthew xxii.13-21: Then the Pharisees went and held a consultation, in order to catch him up in
what he said. They sent their disciples along with the Herodians, and they said: Master, we know
that you are truthful, and you teach the way of God truthfully, and you care for no man, for you
are no respecter of persons. Tell us then what you think. Is it lawful to pay the assessment to
Caesar, or not? Jesus guessed at their treachery and said: Hypocrites, why do you tempt me?
Show me the coin for the assessment. They showed him a denarius. He said: Whose is the image,
and whose name is inscribed? They said: Caesar’s. Then he said to them: Then give Caesar what
is Caesar’s and God what is God’s. When they heard this, they were left wondering, and let him
be, and went away.
In the first, the risen Jesus tells Mary Magdalen not to touch his body. In the second,
Jesus tells the Pharisees to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.