Sonnet XCIV by Lorenzo de’ Medici
Translated by Guido A. Guarino
O lovely violet, you were born there
Where my desire of love came to life.
Beautiful, sad tears were your only waters
That nourished you and often did you bathe.
My lady’s love did mercy nourish there
Where the plant lay in that most sacred earth.
Her lovely hand plucked you and then was pleased
To make mine happy with so dear a gift.
That you to flee want it seemed to me
To that most lovely hand, so I hold you
Against my bare breast tenderly and tight.
Grief and desire my poor bare breast does hold
In my heart’s stead, for my poor heart scorns me
And there remains whence you just came, O violet.
Poem Attribution © Lorenzo de’ Medici, Sonnet XCIV
Source Attribution The Language of Flowers, Ed. Jane Holloway, Pub. Alfred A. Knopf
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Painting Attribution © A. B. Foley, Common Violet, (Date Unstated)
Source Attribution https://www.abfoleyart.com/product/common-violet/
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