The dragon's lair

A personal collection of verse

Cecco Angiolieri


For every ounce of flesh that I may carry,
I bear at least a hundred pounds of sadness,
Till I’ve become a stranger to all gladness,
So close I’m kept by her they made me marry.
She grinds my very bones with phrases which
Advise economy; here’s one example:
“Take care and your allowance will be ample.”
I’d rather have them throw me in a ditch!
There simmers no such terrible Inferno
As this cursed economical persistence;
It’s worse than winter rain that falls and freezes.
What say the learnèd doctors of Salerno
About a holy and a blessed existence?
That man is healthy who does what he pleases.

Cecco Angiolieri


For every ounce of flesh that I may carry,
I bear at least a hundred pounds of sadness,
Till I’ve become a stranger to all gladness,
So close I’m kept by her they made me marry.
She grinds my very bones with phrases which
Advise economy; here’s one example:
“Take care and your allowance will be ample.”
I’d rather have them throw me in a ditch!
There simmers no such terrible Inferno
As this cursed economical persistence;
It’s worse than winter rain that falls and freezes.
What say the learnèd doctors of Salerno
About a holy and a blessed existence?
That man is healthy who does what he pleases.