Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.

Introductory

To Italy

By Luigi Alamanni (1495–1566)

Anonymous translation

THANKS be to God, my feet are now addressed,

Proud Italy, at least to visit thee,

After six weary years, since destiny

Forbids me in thy dear-loved lap to rest.

With weeping eyes, with look and heart depressed,

Upon my natal soil I bend the knee,

While hope and joy my troubled spirit flee,

And anguish, rage, and terror fill my breast.

I turn me, then, the snowy Alps to tread,

And seek the Gaul, more kindly prompt to greet

The child of other lands, than thou art thine:

Here, in these shady vales, mine old retreat,

I lay, in solitude, mine aching head,

Since Heaven decrees, and thou dost so incline.