The feminine rhyming throughout and the shorter opening lines keep the strophe much lighter and more melodic than that of the canzo which Canello prints last of all.
"_Ingenium nobis ipsa puella facit." Propertius II, I._
Sim fos Amors de joi donar tant larga Cum ieu vas lieis d'aver fin cor e franc, Ja per gran ben nom calgra far embarc Qu'er am tant aut quel pes mi poia em tomba; Mas quand m' albir cum es de pretz al som Mout m'en am mais car anc l'ausiei voler, C'aras sai ieu que mos cors e mos sens Mi farant far lor grat rica conquesta.
Had Love as little need to be exhorted To give me joy, as I to keep a frank And ready heart toward her, never he'd blast My hope, whose very height hath high exalted, And cast me down ... to think on my default, And her great worth; yet thinking what I dare, More love myself, and know my heart and sense Shall lead me to high conquest, unmolested.
I am, spite long delay, pooled and contorted And whirled with all my streams 'neath such a bank Of promise, that her fair words hold me fast In joy, and will, until in tomb I am halted. As I'm not one to change hard gold for spalt, And no alloy's in her, that debonaire Shall hold my faith and mine obedience Till, by her accolade, I am invested.
Long waiting hath brought in and hath extorted The fragrance of desire; throat and flank The longing takes me ... and with pain surpassed By her great beauty. Seemeth it hath vaulted O'er all the rest ... them doth it set in fault So that whoever sees her anywhere Must see how charm and every excellence Hold sway in her, untaint, and uncontested.
Since she is such; longing no wise detorted Is in me ... and plays not the mountebank, For all my sense is her, and is compassed Solely in her; and no man is assaulted (By God his dove!) by such desires as vault In me, to have great excellence. My care On her so stark, I can show tolerance To jacks whose joy's to see fine loves uncrested.
Miels-de-Ben, have not your heart distorted Against me now; your love has left me blank, Void, empty of power or will to turn or cast Desire from me ... not brittle,[13] nor defaulted. Asleep, awake, to thee do I exalt And offer me. No less, when I lie bare Or wake, my will to thee, think not turns thence, For breast and throat and head hath it attested.