Petrarch - Sonnet CXCIX lyrics

HE EXCUSES HIMSELF FOR VISITING LAURA TOO OFTEN, AND LOVING HER TOO MUCH Alas! Love bears me where I would not go, And well I see how duty is transgress'd, And how to her who, queen-like, rules my breast, More than my wont importunate I grow. Never from rocks wise sailor guarded so His ship of richest merchandise possess'd, As evermore I shield my bark distress'd From shocks of her hard pride that would o'erthrow Torrents of tears, fierce winds of infinite sighs —For, in my sea, nights horrible and dark And pitiless winter reign—have driven my bark, Sail-less and helm-less where it shatter'd lies, Or, drifting at the mercy of the main, Trouble to others bears, distress to me and pain. Macgregor.