Amorous Affliction/L'Affano Amoroso

by Alani Rosa Hicks-Bartlett tr. Paolina Secco-Suardo Grismondi

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To temper an obstinate and wicked
Pain that has been burrowing into me for some time
I try, now and again, to cry out piteously
To the one who, oh miserable me, preys upon my heart.
But, a disciple of desire, my voice
Is scarcely heard, and already it moans and shouts.
What a harsh refrain, and so inimical to my longings,
I am deterred from begging for mercy.

And a thought says to me: fool, do you not see
That you always receive both scorn and injury
If you throw yourself meekly at the feet of someone cruel?

Thus, in silence, I breed a poorly concealed
Affliction in my heart, which is where the seed
Of that cruel love that gives me such despair took root.




Per alleggiar un’ostinata e ria
Doglia che da gran tempo in me si annida,
Talor tento mandar pietose grida
A chi, lassa, il mio cor tiene in balìa!

Ma seguace al desir la voce mia
È fatta appena, e già si lagna, e grida.
Che dura tema, e alle mie brame infida
Dal dimandar pietà ratta mi svia.

E mi dice un pensier: folle non vedi
Quale ognora ti acquisti e scorno e danno
Se umile ad un crudel ti getti ai piedi?

Così tacendo il mal celato affanno
Cresco nel petto, ove locò le sue sedi
Quel fiero amor che mi dà tanto affanno.

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Alani Rosa Hicks-Bartlett is a writer and translator who increasingly finds herself in a nudiustertian mode. Her recent work has appeared in The Stillwater Review, ANMLY, Cagibi, carte blanche, The Laurel Review, Broad River Review, La Piccioletta Barca, The Fourth River, and Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism, and Translation, among others. She is currently working a collection of villanelles as well as a series of translations from Medieval French, Portuguese, and Italian literature. Born and raised in Bergamo, Italy, Paolina Secco-Suardo Grismondi (1746-1801), was hugely successful in the literary world of her time. As a member of literary academies, she published under the name Lesbia Cidonia. Her poetry bears the stamp of her multi-lingual education and her appreciation of classical literature and classical literary forms, and she frequently enlivens pastoral and arcadian tropes with commentary revealing her personal experience and exploration of gendered embodiment.