Giacomino Pugliesi. “Canzone. Of his Dead Lady.”

DGR's source text, from the Poeti del Primo Secolo collection, is highly imperfect, but DGR follows its rhyme scheme exactly nonetheless—in accordance with his general translation procedures. The close adherence to the source produces odd variances in the prosodic form of the first, second, and fourth stanzas, which should be following the metrical structure proper (as exemplified for instance in stanza 2).

Although DGR's notes say that this is “the only instance, among Dante's predecessors, of a poem. . .written on a lady's death”, Pier della Vigna's planctus“Amando con fin core” is another (though less distinguished) example.

As with most of DGR's translations of the early Italian poets, the date of this one cannot be determined with certainty. It is probably one of the early translations.

The translation was first published in 1861 in The Early Italian Poets; it was reprinted in 1874 in Dante and his Circle.