O Amor, diuino amore, perché m’ài assediato
The Siege of Divine Love
The poet laments being pursued and surrounded by the relentless force of divine love.
O Love, divine Love, why have you laid siege to me? You seem driven mad over me; you can't leave me alone.
Encountering Love Through the Senses
The poet describes how every sensory experience—sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch—becomes a gateway through which God captures the soul.
I see that you've surrounded me on five sides: hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell. If I go out, I'm caught; I can't hide from you. If I go out through my sight, everything I see is love: you are painted in every shape and every color. Then it comes to me that I should welcome you into my heart. If I go out through the doorway and pause to listen, what does the sound mean? It represents you, Lord; nothing can pass through it without what I hear being love.1 If I go out through the gate of taste, every flavor calls out your name: Love, divine Love, Love filled with longing; Love, you’ve caught me on your hook so that you can reign in me. If I go out through the gate called smell, I find you embodied there in every creature; I come back wounded—you capture me through every scent. If I go out through the doorway of touch, I find you portrayed in every creature; Love, how could I be so foolish as to try to escape you?
Transformation and Compassion
The soul experiences a mystical transformation into love itself and finds its heart breaking in sympathy for the suffering of others.
Love, I keep running away so I won't give you my heart, but I see that you transform me and make me love itself, so that I am no longer myself and cannot find myself again. If I see someone suffering, broken, or tempted, I become one with them, and it makes my heart ache. Immeasurable Love, whom have you taken it upon yourself to love?
The Healing Power of the Cross
The poet finds ultimate resolution in the contemplation of Christ's suffering, recognizing it as the source of his own healing.
Take me to the crucified Christ; draw me from the sea to the shore. There you make me suffer as I see him so wounded. Why did he endure it? Because he wanted to heal me.
Read the original Latin
O Amor, diuino amore, perché m’ài assediato? pare de me empazato, non puoi de me posare.
Da cinque parte ueggio che m’ài assediato: audito, uiso, gusto, tacto & odorato; se esco, so pigliato, non me te pos occultare.
Se io esco per lo uiso, ciò che ueggio è amore, en omne forma èi pento, et en omne colore; representime allore ch’io te deggia albergare.
Se esco per la porta per posarme en audire, lo sono & que significa? representa te, sire; per essa non può uscire ciò cche odo è amare.
Se esco per lo gusto, omne sapor te clama: amor, diuino amore, amor pieno de brama; amor preso m’ài a l’hama per poter en me regnare.
Se esco per la porta che se chiama odorato, en omne creatura te ce trouo formato; retorno uulnerato, prendime a l’odorare.
Se esco per la porta che se chiama lo tacto, en omne creatura te ce trouo retracto; amor et co so matto de uolerte mucciare?
Amor, io uo fugendo de non darte el mio core, ueggio che me trasformi et faime essere amore, sì ch’io non son allore et non me posso artrouare.
S’io ueggio ad homo male o defecto o tentato, trasformome entro en lui et face l mio cor penato; amore smesurato, et chi ài preso ad amare?
Prendeme a Christo morto, traime de mare al lito, loco me fai penare uedendol sì ferito; perché l’ai sofferito? per uolerme sanare.
Notes
- 1 ↩The medieval Italian syntax is compressed; the rendering follows the apparent sense that every sound heard through the doorway expresses divine love.
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