Selected Cecco

Cecco Angiolieri lived in Siena c.1260-1312.
His sonnets exhibit a sense of theater combined with
"attitude," as it is called these days.

There are many Cecco sites on the web of which one is

http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/a/angiolieri/rime/html/sommario.htm

Sonnet 17 Quand' i solev' udir

Sonnet 22 Becchina mia!—Cecco, nol ti confesso.

Sonnet 65 Tutto quest' anno; "For this whole year I've managed to repress"

Sonnet 80 La stremità mi richer; "Misery declares that I'm her son"

Sonnet 81 Per sì gran somma; "My laugh's in hock for such a pile of change."

Sonnet 86 S’i’ fosse foco, arderei ’l mondo; "If I were fire, I'd burn up the world."*

Sonnet 87 Tre cose solamente mi so' in grado; "Only three things interest me at all"

Sonnet 97 Chi dice del suo padre, "Who merely dreams of scoffing at his dad"

Sonnet 102 Dante Alighier, s'i' so bon begolardo; "Dante, if I'm head fool it's by a narrow margin"

Sonnet 103 Quando Ner Picciolin tornò di Francia; "When Picciolini got back here from France."

*this translation of Sonnet 86 was first published in the Monadnock Review.

translations©1999, 2001 Leonard Cottrell