Thursday, May 04, 2006

 

How To Pick Up Women

Read Galfridus Chauceres Lynes of Picke-uppe, at Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog. The pick-up lines are about halfway through the post. Here are a couple of examples:With the second example, compare Dante, Inferno 5.127-138 (Paolo and Francesca, tr. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow):
One day we reading were for our delight
Of Launcelot, how Love did him enthral.
Alone we were and without any fear.

Full many a time our eyes together drew
That reading, and drove the colour from our faces;
But one point only was it that o'ercame us.

When as we read of the much-longed-for smile
Being by such a noble lover kissed,
This one, who ne'er from me shall be divided,

Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating.
Galeotto was the book and he who wrote it.
That day no farther did we read therein.



Noi leggiavamo un giorno per diletto
di Lancialotto come amor lo strinse;
soli eravamo e sanza alcun sospetto.

Per più fiate li occhi ci sospinse
quella lettura, e scolorocci il viso;
ma solo un punto fu quel che ci vinse.

Quando leggemmo il disiato riso
esser basciato da cotanto amante,
questi, che mai da me non fia diviso,

la bocca mi basciò tutto tremante.
Galeotto fu 'l libro e chi lo scrisse:
quel giorno più non vi leggemmo avante.
Cf. Chaucer, Nun's Priest's Tale 3211-3213:
This storie is also trewe, I undertake,
As is the book of Launcelot de Lake,
That wommen holde in ful greet reverence.
In my opinion, Dante's Quel giorno più non vi leggemmo avante (That day no farther did we read therein) is the most erotic line in all of world literature.



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