La Trobe University - Library: Medieval Music Database - Annual cycle of feasts of liturgical chant, liturgical polyphony and secular music of the late middle ages.

Donna, perché mi veggi altra mirare

ballata by Paolo da Firenze

Sources

Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds italien 568, fol. 81 (2/2).

Editions

1. Italian Secular Music: Bartolino da Padova, Egidius de Francia, Giulielmus de Francia, Don Paolo da Firenze, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1975. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century IX, p. 122.
2. The Music of Fourteenth-Century Italy, edited by Nino Pirrotta and Ursula Günther, Rome: American Institute of Musicology. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 8/VI. [forthcoming]

Text Editions

CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 276.

Text

Donna, perché mi veggi altra mirare,
giammai non creder ch'io
da te speranza lievi né disio.

Ma nello stato amoroso esser voglio
seguendo te, Dian'ora novella,
e come Amor d'amor veste, me spoglio
l'amor d'ogn'altra che mostrasse bella.
E più che mai mia alma t'è ancella:
servazo, il qual port'io
per mie dolceza non mi torn'in rio

Translation

Lady, though you may see me looking at another woman,
never believe that I have ceased making you
the object of my hope and desire.

Indeed I wish to be in an amorous state
following you, new Diana;
and, as Love wraps me in love, I cast off
the love of any other woman whom I ever thought beautiful.
And more than ever my soul is your servant.
May my allegiance, which I owe you
for my sweet pleasure, not turn into sorrow.
Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga