Terze rime by Veronica Franco ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "...and to feel, through loving, this beloved mismatch in love." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [From Capitolo 8, to a man who loves her while she loves another, with equally little reward:] Perhaps Love even laughs at these shared tears and, to make the world weep even more, divides and sunders yet another's desire; and, while he makes merry over this, the wide sea of all our tears darkens and deepens further still: for if man could love to his heart's content, without confronting contrary desires, the pleasure of love would have no equal. And if destiny had laid down the law that in supreme delight, earthly good may not attain the bliss of heaven, my woe is all the greater as my habit is to fall in love, and to feel, through loving, this beloved mismatch in love. However much I reflect on myself, I see that fortune leads me wherever life follows an always troubled path;... [ll.76-93; p.103] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "...braced stiff for your sinister task, bring with daring hand a piercing blade." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [From Capitolo 13; a playful challenge to a lover:] No more words! To deeds, to the battlefield, to arms! For, resolved to die, I want to free myself from such merciless mistreatment. Should I call this a challenge? I do not know, since I am responding to a provocation; but why should we duel over words? If you like, I will say that you challenged me; if not, I challenge you; I'll take any route, and any opportunity suits me equally well. Yours be the choice of place or of arms, and I will make whatever choice remains; rather, let both be your decision.... Come here, and, full of most wicked desire, braced stiff for your sinister task, bring with daring hand a piercing blade. Whatever weapon you hand over to me, I will gladly take, especially if it is sharp and sturdy and also quick to wound. Let all armor be stripped from your naked breast, so that, unshielded and exposed to blows, it may reveal the valor it harbors within. Let no one else intervene in this match, let it be limited to the two of use alone, behind closed doors, with all seconds sent away.... To take revenge for your unfair attack, I'd fall upon you, and in daring combat, as you too caught fire defending yourself, I would die with you, felled by the same blow. O empty hopes, over which cruel fate forces me to weep forever! But hold firm, my strong, undaunted heart, and with that felon's final destruction, avenge your thousand deaths with his one. Then end your agony with the same blade. [ll.1-12, 46-57, 82-91; pp.133-37] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Choose the language that you prefer, for I am equally happy with them all." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [From Capitolo 16; a more serious challenge, against a man who has written against Franco, calling her a whore. She describes herself as being wounded, and then:] Yet my tears are stanched at last and dried, and the bitter wound has finally healed that pierced me through from one side to the other. As if jolted awake from sweet sleep all at once, I drew courage from the risk I'd avoided, though a woman, born to milder tasks; and, blade in hand, I learned warrior's skills, so that, by handling weapons, I learned that women by nature are no less agile than men.... So take up at last the weapon you've chosen, for I cannot bear any further delay, compelled as I am by the scorn in my soul. The sword that strikes and stabs in your hand--- the common language spoken in Venice--- if that's what you want to use, then so do I; and if you want to enter into Tuscan, I leave you the choice of high or comic strain for one's as easy and clear for me as the other. I've seen, in mock-heroic verse, a very fine work of yours that resembles the style that mixes Italian and Latin. Whichever of these you wish to use, as you do elsewhere, to speed on your arrows in a contest of insults exchanged between us, choose the language that you prefer, for I am equally happy with them all, since I have learned them for exactly this purpose. To compete with you as boldly as I may, I have studied all these styles in depth; whether well or ill, I myself am content; and others as well will understand this. And so will you, for you may fall, beaten, wishing you had not insulted me. [ll. 28-39, 109-32; pp. 161-67] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Yet I'm not able to hope that the opposite had not occurred." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [From Capitolo 19; Franco puzzles over her feelings for an old love:] You went away to foreign peoples, and I stayed behind, the prey of that fire which, without you, made my days black and sad; but as the hours progressed, little by little, I resolved to make a virtue of my need, and to make room in myself for other concerns. This was the true solution to my pain: in this way my mind discovered at last a cure for its deep and serious wounds; your departure for foreign lands mended the blow, although the scar could not be completely erased. Perhaps I would have been happy and glad if I could have enjoyed you to my heart's content, and perhaps I'd have been unhappy instead. The great excess of happiness might have transformed the highest joy into cruel, burdensome pain; and if you'd gone, leaving me behind at a time so full of such delight, my distress would have had no end. So heaven refused to make my hours joyful and serene, to avoid reducing me soon after to the worst, most bitter pain. And I, freed by heaven to such a degree, must remain content; and yet I'm not able to hope that the opposite had not occurred. [ll.58-84; pp.185-87] ------------------------------------------- "Silence is bad, but action is worse." ------------------------------------------- [From Capitolo 23; again on a man who has defamed her; here she asks another man for advice. Franco's dilemma reflects her marginal status; a "respectable" Venetian woman would have had a whole network of family to defend her good name:] If a certain Sir Cricket, concealed in his hole, as his habit is, was moved to speak ill of me in my absence, what can I do about it? And if, attracted by the sound, many wasps and horseflies came rushing up and buzzed in chorus with his rough voice, my honor suffers no harm from this, and as far as I'm concerned, I laugh instead; but then I am wounded by others' stupidity.... And yet for all this I did not rise in anger but rather rejoiced when, by keeping silent, my truth prevailed over what he had said. Then indeed in my silence I saw him grow more and more insolent, and I'd almost say that it was I who made him that way. But in that case, what was it my duty to do if not to ignore the talk sent around behind my back by a wicked, vile man?... I have thought about this at length and have said that if I were to defy him, he might retreat, taking back his insults; he might turn his steps in another direction and flee from meeting me in combat, for fear that I'd club him to death. But if he has bones that withstand every test and any number of heavy club strokes, so his opponent finally tires of hitting him without having got what he deserves, at last he might so tire me out that I'd have armed myself for my despair. And then what would be said about me? That I cannot handle a cowardly man, whom a mere child could beat with a switch, a man who pretends to be strong and unbeatable in battle with a woman who endures and is silent, without even threatening him with a look.... But what shall I do? Silence is bad, but action is worse. Oh, useless words of mine! Give me, my lord, your advice. [ll.55-63, 136-53, 176-78; pp. 233-41]