of them, turning her eyes toward me, and calling me by name, said, ’To what end dost thou love this lady, since thou canst not support her presence?  Tell us, for it is certain that the object of such a love must be a very strange one.’  And when she had said these words to me, not only she, but all the others, began to attend in expectation of my reply.  Then I said to them, ’Ladies, the object of my love was, in truth, the salutation of that lady of whom perhaps you speak; and in that dwelt the bliss which was the end of all my desires.  But since it has pleased her to deny it to me, my lord Love, thanks be to him, has placed all my bliss in that which cannot be taken from me.’  Then these ladies began to speak together, and, as we sometimes see rain falling mingled with beautiful snow, so, it seemed to me, I saw their words mingled with sighs.  And after they had spoken for some time among themselves, the same lady who had first spoken to me said to me, ’We pray thee that thou wouldst tell us in what consists this thy bliss.’  And I, replying to her, said, ’In those words which speak my lady’s praise.’  And she answered, ’If thou sayest truth in this, those words which thou hast spoken concerning thine own condition must have been written with another intention.’[K] Then I, thinking on these words, and, as it were, ashamed of myself, departed from them, and went, saying to myself, ’Since there is such bliss in those words which praise my lady, why has my speech been of other things?’ And I proposed to take always for my subject, henceforward, the praise of this most gentle lady.  And thinking much on this, I seemed to myself to have taken too lofty a subject for my power, so that I did not dare to begin.  Thus I delayed some days, with the desire to speak, and with a fear of beginning.

[Footnote K:  This refers to the sonnets Dante had written about his own trouble and the conflict of his thoughts.  It will be observed that the words “speak” and “speech” are used in reference to poetic compositions.  In those days the poet was commonly called il dicitore in rima, “the speaker in rhyme,” or simply il dicitore.]

“Then it happened, that, walking along a road, at the side of which ran a very clear stream, so great a wish to speak came to me, that I began to think on the method I should observe; and I thought that to speak of her would not be becoming, unless I addressed my words to ladies,—­and not to every lady, but only to those who are gentle, and not mere women.[L] Then I say that my tongue spoke as if moved by its own accord, and said, ‘Ladies who have intelligence of Love.’  These words I laid by in my mind with great joy, thinking to take them for my beginning.  And returning to the city, after some days I began this Canzone:—­[M]