Chapter XIV

_S’ un casto amor, s ’una pietà superna,
S’ una fortuna infra dua amanti equale,
S’ un’ aspra sorte all ’un dell’ altro cale,
S’ un spirto, s’ un voler duo cor governa;
S’ un’ anima in duo corpi è fatta eterna,
Ambo levando al cielo e con pari ale;
S’ amor d’ un colpo e d’ un dorato strale
Le viscier di duo petti arda e discierna;
S’ amar l’ un l’ altro, e nessun se medesmo,
D’ un gusto e d’ un diletto, a tal mercede,
C’ a un fin voglia l’ uno e l’ altro porre;
Se mille e mille non sarien centesmo
A tal nodo d’ amore, a tanta fede;
E sol l’ isdegnio il può rompere e sciorre?_

_If one chaste love, one sacred piety,
One fortune sharèd ’twixt two lovers so,
That either’s care from heart to heart may flow,
Impelled by one desire, one energy;
If bodies both are by one soul controlled,
That wingèd bears them up to heaven’s gate;
If love, with one essay, doth penetrate
And burn two bosoms with one shaft of gold;
If living each in other, self forgot,
One liking, one felicity, awake
One will to move toward one desirèd lot;
If thousand ties as holy, fail to make
A thousandth part; the consecrated knot,
Shall pride, and pride alone, avail to break?_