Subject of Desire: Petrarchan Poetics and the Female Voice in Louise Labé

Appendix: English Translations

Appendix English Translations These English translations for the longer quotations are keyed to the text by number. Foreword While still my voice can find the self-command To sing of you, and overcome a sigh, While still my soul can other thoughts deny And you are all it seeks to comprehend.· (Sonnet 14, lines 5-8) 2 Bright Venus, who wanders across the Heavens, Hear my voice which sings out to lament, While still your face shines high in the sky, Its long suffering and sorrowful cares. My waking eye will be more deeply touched, And seeing you still more tears will shed. Better will it soak my soft bed, Seeing your eyes as witnesses to its pain. Thus are the tired spirits of human souls In love with gentle rest and sleep. But I endure pain as long as the sun shines And when I am all but completely broken, And have thrown myself exhausted into my bed, I must cry out my anguish throughout the night. (Sonnet 5, D. Baker's translation) Chapter One 3 The time having come, Mademoiselle, when the stern laws ofmen no longer bar women from devoting themselves to studies and disciplines, it seems to me that those ofus who 169 English Translations to Pages 1-21 are able ought to employ this honorable freedom, which our sex used to desire so much, to learning these things.2 Epistre to Mademoiselle Clemence de Bourges, Lyonnaise (Translation modified) 4 I ask only, Love, that you kill this pain, But not extinguish the desire to me so dear, That I could not be without lest I should die.3 Sonnet 1 Chapter Two 5 The time having come, Mademoiselle, when the stem laws of men no longer bar women from devoting themselves to studies and disciplines, it seems to me that those of us who are able ought to employ this honorable freedom, which our sex used to desire so much, to learning these things. (L.ines 1-5; translation modified) 6 And in addition to the recognition that our sex will gain by this, we will have furnished the public with a reason for men to devote more study and labor to the humanities lest they might be ashamed to see us surpass them when they have always claimed to be superior in nearly everything. (Lines 26-29; translation modified) 7 and I did not intend that anyone other than myself should ever see them. But since some of my friends found a way to read them without my knowing anything about it, and (thus we easily believe those who praise us) since they have persuaded me that I should bring them to light, I was not so bold as to refuse them. But I did threaten to make them drink half the measure of shame which would be the result. (Lines 62-67) 8 And because women do not willingly appear alone in public, I have chosen you to serve as my guide, dedicating this little work to you. I do not send it to you for any purpose other than to assure you of the goodwill I have borne you for a long time and to make you, seeing this rough and badly written work of mine, long to create another which might be more polished and more elegant. (Lines 68-73) 9 And if anyone of us reaches the stage at which she is able to put her ideas into writing, she should do it with·much thought and should not scorn the glory, but adorn herselfwith this rather than with chains, rings, and sumptuous clothes, which we are not really 170 English Translations to Pages 22-35 able to regard as ours except by custom. (Lines 6-10; translation modified) 10 But the honor which knowledge will bring us cannot be taken from us-not by the cunning of a thief, not by the violence of enemies, not by the duration of time. (Lines 10-13) 11 I cannot do otherwise than beg Ladies of virtue to raise their minds a little above their distaffs and spindles and to exert themselves to make it clear to the world that, if we are not made for commanding , we ought not to be disdained as companions in domestic and public affairs by those who govern and make themselves obeyed. (Lines 20-25; translation modified) 12 The time having come, Mademoiselle, when...