Did Beatrice have Dantesque visions?
Did Laura write Petrarchan sonnets:
I’ve taught women to speak, O God —
But how can I teach them silence?
Могла ли Би́че, словно Дант, творить,
Или Лау́ра жар любви восславить?
Я научила женщин говорить…
Но, Боже, как их замолчать заставить!
«Today has not yet come, / And yesterday has melted. / The morning's face is wan: / An actress with no make-up. Her eyelids puffed, the dawn / Is creeping, nude and moody, / And with a weary yawn / Sinks into daily duties... Wise mornings have no haste: / The day is barely shaping, / ...»
«In the evenings, the sultry air above the restaurants / is both wild and torpid, / and drunken vociferations are governed / by the evil spirit of spring. In the dusty vista of lanes / where reigns the suburban tedium of clapboard villas / the gilt sign of a bakery — a giant pretzel — ...»
«Of evenings hangs above the restaurant / A humid, wild and heavy air. / The Springtide spirit, brooding, pestilent, / Commands the drunken outcries there. Far off, above the alley's mustiness, / Where bored gray summerhouses lie, / The baker's sign swings gold through dustiness, / And l...»
«At evening, above the restaurants, / the sultry air is savage, heavy, / and the breath of spring, corruption, / holds the sound of drunken shouting. Far off, over the dusty streets / the boredom of suburban houses, / the bakery’s gilt sign glitters, faintly, / and there’s the noise ...»