[Anonymous] “Ballata. One Speaks of the Beginning of his Love.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1861
Rhyme: abbccddd
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: ballata

Bibliography

◦ Trucchi, Poesie Italiane inedite vol. 2, 159.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

This translation is as charming as its original. It is also a poem with clear and close connections to the central thematic and stylistic concerns of both Dante and DGR. Compare, for example, the great canzone from La Vita Nuova“Ladies that have intelligence in Love” or DGR's pastiche Dantean poem “Piangendo star con l'anima smarrita”.

The translation follows the original closely in both form and content. The work remains anonymous to scholars; it appears to be a late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century work. DGR's source text was Trucchi's Poesie Italiane inedite (II. 159), where it is said to be set for singing in two voices.

Textual History: Composition

Probably a later translation, late 1850s.

Printing History

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

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 81d-1861.raw.xml