“Occhi dolenti, accompagnate il core, piangete omai quanto la vita dura, poi che ‘l sol vi si oscura
che lieti vi facea col suo splendore.
Poscia che’l lume de’ begli occhi hai spento,
Morte spietata e fera,
che solea far serena la mia vita,
a qual duol mi riservi, a qual tormento!
-Petrarca

Sad eyes, accompany my beart; weep now that life endures too long since the sun that made you happy with its splendor has darkened.

Wicked and savage death, since you bave extinguished the light of the beautiful eyes that used to make my oren life serene, for what pain do you save me? for what torment?

(Trans. Joseph A. Barber, in Francesco Petrarch Rime Disperse, Joseph A. Barber, ed. and trans., New York: Garland, 1991)