Trovommi Amor [English translation]

1

It didn’t look to me like a time to seek shelter

from the blows of Love; therefore I went on

determinedly, unsuspectingly; whence my troubles

in the common pain began.

It was the day when the sunlight went dark

because of compassion towards its Creator,2

that I was taken, and I didn’t defend myself,

for your beautiful eyes, milady, they bound me.

Love found me utterly powerless,

and it found the way opened - through the eyes and to the heart -

those eyes that are a door and a doorstep towards tears.

Thus, in my opinion it wasn’t a honorable thing [on Love’s part]

to wound me with a dart when I was in that condition,

and not to show you the bow you were armed with.

1. The poem draws a parallel between his love for his sweetheart Laura, who died of plague in 1348, and the death of Jesus on the cross.

The poem takes place in 1327, on Good Friday, the day when Jesus was crucified and died.

On that day of 1327, the poet met Laura for the first time; he describes his love at first sight and compares it with the "common pain" of all Christians for the death of Jesus.

He would have never thought that he could fell in love on such a gloomy day, so he wasn’t prepared to defend himself from Love’s blows. She didn’t know she would have such an effect on him, either; all in all, it was a trickery on Love’s part to hit them when they weren’t expecting it.2. The Bible narrates that when Jesus died, an eclipse occurred.

See here.

The original actually says "the sun rays lost their color".