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

Se per virtù amor, donna, m'accese

ballata by Paolo da Firenze

Sources

Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds italien 568, fol. 78v-79 (3/1).

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. 170.
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. 283.

Text

Se per virtù amor, donna, m'accese
del dolce sguardo de' belli ochi tuoi
voglio in tal foco arder sanza difese.

Né in ciò liss'ha el mie cor, né vorria
da tal amor già mai esser disciolto;
ancora morte da le' mi torria
pria ch'altro amor m'avesse a sé ricolto.
Dunque caro mie ben che 'l cor m'ha tolto,
parte del tuo mi dona,
sì che 'l tu' amor a me sol sia palese

Translation

If Love set fire to me, my Lady,
through the power of your beautiful eyes,
I want to burn defenceless in such a fire.

My heart has no quarrel with that, nor would it want
ever to be freed from such a love.
Surely death would take me away from her
before I let myself be enthralled by another love.
Therefore, my dearest, who have taken away my heart,
give me part of yours,
so that your love may be revealed only to me.
Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga