Italian Poetry

Today we read Intorno ad una fonte, in un pratello, by Giovanni Boccaccio.

Boccaccio’s fame is tightly linked to his collection of novels, il Decamerone — especially so in English speaking countries, where he is recognized as a fundamental model for Chaucer’s The Canterbury’s Tales.

But Boccaccio was also a poet. He loved Dante, he admired his friend Petrarca. He certainly appreciated the Dolce stil novo poetry, paradigmatic at the time, which extolled love for a woman as a means to get closer to God.

And yet his poetry can be much less… pious. This is the first poem in his collection Rime, and as such it sets the tone for the entire work. It starts with an almost stock description of a locus amoenus: a pleasant natural setting; beautiful, refined ladies discoursing about love; a liberal use of diminutives (all those nouns ending in -ello or -etto).

But the sestina turns the rarefied setting on its head with a light touch of irony and a naughty smile. One of the ladies asks if they would run away, should one of their lovers arrive — presumably to behave like “proper ladies.” But the other two answer saying, basically, “are you crazy? Of course we wouldn’t!”

The original:

Intorno ad una fonte, in un pratello
Di verdi erbette pieno e di bei fiori,
Sedeano tre angiolette, i loro amori
Forse narrando; et a ciascuna il bello

Viso adombrava un verde ramoscello
Che i capei d’ôr cingea; al qual di fuori
E dentro insieme i dua vaghi colori
Avvolgeva un soave venticello.

E dopo alquanto l’una alle due disse,
Com’io udii — Deh! se per avventura
Di ciascuna l’amante qui venisse,

Fuggiremmo noi quinci per paura? —
A cui le due risposer — Chi fuggisse,
Poco savia sarìa con tal ventura. — \ The music in this episode is Vivaldi’s Concerto for 2 Oboes in A minor, RV 536 — I. Allegro, by The Modena Chamber Orchestra (under creative commons from musopen).