Page:Sonnets and Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti.djvu/129

 N wood-way found I once a shepherdess, More fair than stars are was she to my seeming.

Her hair was wavy somewhat, like dull gold. Eyes? Love-worn, and her face like some pale rose. With a small twig she kept her lambs in hold, And bare her feet were bar the dewdrop’s gloze; She sang as one whom mad love holdeth close, And joy was on her for an ornament.

I greeted her in love without delaying: “Hast thou companion in thy solitude?” And she replied to me most sweetly, saying, “Nay, I am quite alone in all this wood, But when the birds ’gin singing in their coverts My heart is fain that time to find a lover.”

As she was speaking thus of her condition I heard the bird-song ’neath the forest shade And thought me how ’t was but the time’s provision To gather joy of this small shepherd maid. Favour I asked her, but for kisses only, And then I felt her pleasant arms upon me.