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194 The Translator’s InvisibilityWho is she coming, whom all gaze upon,Who makes the air all tremulous with light,And at whose side is Love himself? that noneDare speak, but each man’s sighs are infinite.Ah me! how she looks round from left to right,Let Love discourse: I may not speak thereon.Lady she seems of such high benisonAs makes all others graceless in men’s sight.The honour which is hers cannot be said;To whom are subject all things virtuous,While all things beauteous own her deity.Ne’er was the mind of man so nobly led,Nor yet was such redemption granted usThat we should ever know her perfectly.(Rossetti 1981:223)Some of Rossetti’s deviations from the Italian improve the fluency ofthe translation by simplifying the syntax. “At whose side is Lovehimself,” for instance, is a free rendering of “mena seco Amor” thatreads much more easily than a closer version like “she leads Love withherself.” Rossetti also added different nuances to Cavalcanti’sidealization of the lady, making it more moral or spiritual, eventheological, by using “benison” for “umiltà” (“humility,” “meekness,”“modesty”), “honour” for “piacenza” (“pleasantness”), and“redemption” for “salute” (“health,” “salvation”). Pound’s 1910version quoted Rossetti’s, but it adhered more closely to the Italian textand noticeably increased the archaism. Next to Rossetti’s version,moreover, Pound’s offered a more human image of the lady byreferring to her “modesty” and “charm” and suggesting that shecommands the attention of an aristocratic elite (“noble powers”). Thelover meanwhile possesses a knightly “daring” that “ne’er before didlook so high,” spiritually or socially:Who is she coming, whom all gaze upon,Who makes the whole air tremulous with light,And leadeth with her Love, so no man hathPower of speech, but each one sigheth?Ah God! the thing she’s like when her eyes turn,Let Amor tell! ’Tis past my utterance:And so she seems mistress of modestyThat every other woman is named “Wrath.”