September / Folgore da San Geminiano

from Of the Months

September

And in September, O what keen delight!
    Falcons and astors, merlins, sparrowhawks:
    Decoy-birds that shall lure your game in flocks;
And hounds with bells; and gauntlets stout and tight;
Wide pouches; crossbows shooting out of sight;
    Arblasts and javelins; balls and ball-cases;
    All birds the best to fly at; moulting these,
Those rear'd by hand; with finches mean and slight;
And for their chase, all birds the best to fly;
    And each to each of you be lavish still
        In gifts; and robbery find no gainsa}ang;
And if you meet with travellers going by.
    Their purses from your purse's flow shall fill;
        And avarice be the only outcast thing.

~~
Folgore da San Geminiano (?1270-1332?)
translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
from The Early Italian Poets, 1861

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

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Folgore da San Geminiano biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti biography

from the Taccuinum Sanitatis, 14th century. Wikimedia Commons.