DGR's translation of the second quatrain executes a striking decision about
the meaning of the original sonnet. The
text of line 5 in Frescobaldi reads “che in questa man siede”, thus
leaving ambiguous the reference of “questa”, which might refer either to the lady.
the poet, or Love.
The easiest reading (so to speak) would reference either the lady or Love, who is the ultimate master of
the arrows of love. DGR's translation arrests
one's attention exactly
because it chooses the difficilior lectio and
places the arrow in the poet's hands. He was probably led to this reading by the
Italian text's
reference to the “nuova dardo” (line 5),
as if love's arrow, having struck the poet, were now
being imagined in another action. However that may be, the
effect in the English poem is to suggest that
the poem itself is the “new arrow of strength”—an idea very much in keeping with
the programmatic stance of these early Italian poets, but even more so with DGR's belated
recovery of their arguments.
DGR's source was either
Probably an early translation, late 1840s.
The translation was first published in 1861 in
The Early Italian Poets)
Poeti del dolce stil nuovo