ABSTRACT
Date of composition unknown; possibly late summer 1815. S. seems to have spent much of this summer writing prose, and the MS (now untraced) comprises part of a philosophical work in prose (see Forman 1880 vi 282, 287–90 for details). The translation is from Cavalcanti’s sonnet ‘Io vengo il giorno a te infinite volte’ (Rime di diversi antichi autori Tosarni in dodici libri raccolte (Venice 1740) 342), and may have been omitted from 1816 because of its obvious affinity with the sonnet on Wordsworth (No. III), which it perhaps suggested. There are signs that S. had Wordsworth in mind when translating it: there is no equivalent in the Italian to ‘Changed thoughts’ (line 2), or to ‘that sweet mood / When thou wert faithful to thyself and me’ (7–8), or to ‘In vain/1 seek what once thou wert’ (10–11; cp. To Wordsworth’ 5–6, 13).
