I Am Ready
“If I could be certain of your love, from what your words and face display, which often conceal a changing mind;
If external signs revealed what the mind conceals within, so that a person were not so often entrapped by deceit,
I would cast aside this fear, for which, however I tried to protect myself, I would be mocked as simple and unwise…
And if you truly love me, it grieves me very much that you do not reveal yourself by deeds,
as a man who loves truly usually does:
I am sorry, on one hand, that you feel pain, and on the other hand you frustrate me in my desire to satisfy your true love.
…
I am ready to walk in step with you, and I will love you beyond any doubt,
…
My heart falls in love with virtues, and you, who possess so many of them that in you all the finest wisdom dwells,
…
I yearn and long to have a good reason to love you: decide what you think best, for every outcome depends on your will.”
– words of Veronica Franco (translated by Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal)