This sonnet addressed to Guido Cavalcanti appears in many early manuscripts. It
is the only known work of Bernardo, who flourished in the late thirteenth-century. He is mentioned
in the correspondence of Cino da Pistoia. The sonnet's chief importance lies in its
connection to the excellent
But Bernardo's sonnet is in fact much better than DGR's translation indicates. The problem comes because DGR mistakes the syntax of the original poem (the text he worked from is ambiguous and corrupt at a crucial mid-point, line 6). Consequently, DGR's translation goes completely awry at that point: Bernardo's sonnet assigns lines 6-11 to Pinela and lines 12-14 to Bernardo's response to her comments.
The sonnet implicitly celebrates Cavalcanti's verse and love rhetoric, which has
so smitten the lady named in the sonnet. (As Cavalcanti's
DGR's rhyme scheme follows the source text, which is
the
Probably late 1840s or early 1850s.
The translation was first published in 1861 in
The
Early Italian Poets
Dante
and his Circle
Early Italian Poets)Guido
Cavalcanti. Rime
Poeti de Duecento