Introduction
magical powers has fallen away since men invoked Mithra by a sequence of pure vowel sounds. That there might be less interposed between the reader and Guido, it was my first intention to print only his poems and an unrhymed gloze. This has not been practicable. I cannot trust the reader to read the Italian for the music after he has read my English for the sense.
These are no sonnets for an idle hour. It is only when the emotions illumine the perceptive powers that we see the reality. It is in the light born of this double current that we look upon the face of the mystery unveiled. I have lived with these sonnets and ballate daily, month in and month out, and have been drawn daily deeper into them and daily into contemplation of things that are not of an hour. And I deem, for this, that voi altri pochi, who understand, will love me better for my labour in proportion as you read more carefully.
For the rest, I can but quote an envoi, that of Guido’s Canzone, “Donna mi pregna”:
Thou mayest go assured, my Canzone,
Whither thou wilt, for I have so adorned thee
That praise shall rise to greet thy reasoning
Mid all such folk as have intelligence;
To stand with any else, thou’st no desire.
November 15, 1910.
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