Gentle Heart

Turkey, pheasant, chicken

Within the gentle heart Love shelters himself,
As birds within the green shard of the grove.
Before the gentle heart, in nature’s scheme,
Love was not, nor the gentle heart ere Love.
For with the sun, at once,
So sprang the light immediately; nor was
It’s birth before the sun’s.
And Love hath his effect in gentleness
Of very self; even as
Within the middle fire the heat’s excess.
 

Guido Guinicelli di Magnano (1230–75?), Of the Gentle Heart,
 

Translation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Dante and his Circle

   Photo:  Mark Miskill