Meo Abbracciavacca, da Pistoia. “Ballata. His Life is by Contraries.”

Although the poem appears in both of DGR's possible sources, modern editors do not include it among Meo Abbracciavacca's works. It is clear from DGR's rhyme scheme that he chose to ignore the original and treat the poem not as a single rhyming unit but as a structure of four separate parts.

It is uncertain whether DGR's source is the text in Poeti del primo secolo (II. 18) or in the Raccolta di Rime Antiche Toscane (I. 446-447). It was probably the former because the latter text identifies the work (correctly) as a “sonetto doppio”.

For commentary on Meo (i.e., Bartolomeo) Abbracciavacca see the commentary for the original of this translation.

Probably the late 1840s.

The translation was first published in 1861 in The Early Italian Poets; it was reprinted in 1874 in Dante and his Circle.