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| (1) Ex quo duo que sunt artis in cantione satis sufficienter tractavimus, nunc de tertio videtur esse tractandum, videlicet de numero carminum et sillabarum. Et primo secundum totam stantiam videre oportet aliquid; deinde secundum partes eius videbimus. | (1) Since I have now treated two aspects of canzone technique in sufficient depth, it is clearly time to discuss a third, namely the number of lines and syllables. And first of all we must consider the matter from the point of view of the whole stanza; after which we will go on to look at its separate parts. | |
| (2) Nostra igitur primo refert discretionem facere inter ea que canenda occurrunt; quia quedam stantie prolixitatem videntur appetere, quedam non. Nam cum ea que dicimus cuncta vel circa dextrum aliquid, vel sinistrum, canamus, ut quandoque persuasorie, quandoque dissuasorie, quandoque gratulanter, quandoque ironice, quandoque laudabiliter, quandoque contemptive canere contingit, que circa sinistra sunt verba semper ad extremum festinent, et alia decenti prolixitate passim veniant ad extremum ... | (2) First of all, then, I must draw a distinction among the subjects that a lend themselves to poetry, for some of them seem to require a stanza of a certain length, while others do not. For since everything we touch upon in poetry can be treated either positively or negatively [from right or left] - so that sometimes we sing to persuade and sometimes to dissuade, or sometimes sincerely and sometimes ironically, or sometimes to praise and sometimes to scorn - so the words that treat subjects negatively should always hasten to make an end, while the others should always reach their destination at an agreeably measured pace... | |