Boccaccio's Olympia: Edited with an English Rendering

WE sat chatting in your garden, and some of your friends who were there joined in the talk. Francesca most graciously pressed me to make myself at home, and proffered me your books & all your belongings, -all she had I was to consider mine; but not for a moment did she forget the modest demeanour of the perfect wife. She was welcoming me, when, lo, there before me was your dear little Eletta. my little friend 1 How gracefully she came along! One could not have expected such grace in so young a child. Before she could know who I was, she smiled at me so sweetly. What joy was mine when I saw her! What a hunger seized my heart as I held her in my arms! At first I thought it was my own girlie -the little maid once mine. Need I say more? You’ll hardly believe me. But ask Doctor William of Ravenna and our friend Donatus. They know. Your little Eletta is the very image of my lost one. She has the same laugh, the same joyous eyes, the same bearing and gait; she holds her dear Uttle body just the same way. My girlie was perhaps slightly taller, but then she was older; she was five and a half when I saw her last. Had their dialect been the same, they would have spoken the same words -the same simple artless words. I can see no difference, except that Eletta’s hair is golden, while my girlie’s was chestnut brown. Ah me! how often, while I fondled your little one. and listened to her sweet prattle, did the memory of the little daughter reft from me bring tears to my eyesl How often, when no one observed, did I sigh away my tears!