Guido Cavalcanti
SONETTO XXII
A DANTE ALIGHIERI
Vedesti al mio parere ogni valore
E tutto gioco, e quanto bene uom sente,
Se fusti in pruova del signor valente,
Che signoreggia il mondo de l’ onore;
Poi vive in parte, dove noia muore,
E tien ragion ne la piatosa mente;
Si va soave ne’ sonni a la gente,
Che i cor ne portò sanza far dolore.
Di voi lo cor se ne portò, veggendo,
Che vostra donna la morte chiedea:
Nodrilla d’ esto cor, di ciò temendo.
Quanto t’ apparve, che sen gìa dogliendo,
Fu dolce sonno, ch’ allor si compiea,
Che ’l suo contrario lo venìa vincendo.
In Vita Nuova, iii., Dante writes: “Many replied to this
sonnet (A ciascun’ alma presa, e gentil core) with varying inter-
pretations; among those who replied was he whom I call first
of my friends; he wrote at that time a sonnet which began:
And this was, as it were, the inception of the friendship between
us, when he learned that I was the one who had sent him this
(sonnet).”
sonnet (A ciascun’ alma presa, e gentil core) with varying inter-
pretations; among those who replied was he whom I call first
of my friends; he wrote at that time a sonnet which began:
‘Vedesti al mio parere ogni valore.’
us, when he learned that I was the one who had sent him this
(sonnet).”
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