There is no doubt that the Italian language was born in Sicily in the thirteenth century at the time of the Sicilian School of poetry whose main exponent was Iacopo da Lentini, the inventor of the sonnet.
A sonnet is a poem made up of fourteen rhyming lines: two quatrains and two triplets.
With the permission of Iacopo da Lentini, I dare to translate one of his sonnets into English. Of course, there are no rhymes in the English version. I hope Iacopo da Lentini will forgive me for my amateur translation.
AMOR E’ UNO DESIO CHE VEN DA CORE
Amore è uno desio che ven da core
Per abbondanza di gran piacimento;
E li occhi in prima generan l’amore
E lo core li dà nutricamento
Ben è alcuna fiata om amatore
Senza vedere so ‘namoramento
Ma quell’amor che stringe con furore
Da la vista de li occhi ha nascimento:
Ché li occhi rappresentan a lo core
D’ogni cosa che veden bono e rio
Com’è formata naturalmente;
E lo cor, che di zo è concepitore,
Imagina, e li piace quel desio:
E questo amore regna fra la gente.
LOVE IS A DESIRE THAT COMES FROM THE HEART
Love is a desire that comes from the heart
Because of abundance of pleasure;
The eyes first generate love
And then, the heart nourishes it.
It is possible that sometimes a man loves
Without seeing the loved one,
But that love that grabs him with fury
Comes from the sight of the eyes:
Because the eyes show to the heart
The good and evil of everything
As it is naturally made of;
And the heart that receives the message (of the eyes)
Dreams and enjoys that desire:
And this is human love.
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
– Travels of the Mind
Ettore Grillo's Blog 