DAGGER
 
Because sure victory I represent, so I carry the dagger, Handling it in combat with both hands.
 
Since I overcome all those who fight against me,
For sure! I carry arms with broken hands.

 
Blocking the arms of all combatants, So they won't extend safely their right hand, Now I happily carry two keys in my hands.
 
You ask why I gloriously crush these people under my feet? Because I overcome all of them in combat: The palm of victory expects to be in my right hand.

 
I'm the first master of the dagger, full of deceit, And with my left hand I'll grab the dagger from your hand: And truly many other tricks I can do, And my student will do them with malice.
 
With my dagger I will turn around your arm And I'll pierce you in the chest, and it won't be taken from me.

 
Your right arm is locked under my left;
Much I can hurt you, and keep you locked.
 
Because you have locked my arm this way,
With my under lever your lock will hurt you back.

 
If I can twist this arm of yours
With a middle lever I'll make you stumble.
 
The middle lever won't make me stumble,
For with this contrary I'd better get free.

 
I'm well ready to throw you to the ground:
If you don't have the contrary, I'll do it now.
 
I have prepared the contrary this way
And I'll pierce you to my satisfaction.

 
For greater strength, I'll go this way;
Inviting you to use all previous remedies.
 
With my counter move, you will fail:
With my dagger I'll pierce you and turn you around.

 
This master's grip won't fail me
And I'll break your arm above the shoulder.
 
You won't break my arm with your shoulder,
And with my contrary I'll throw you to the ground.

 
Your dagger will soon be snatched away
And after that I'll twist your elbow.
 
My dagger won't get snatched by your twist,
And I'll pierce you without fail.

 
I have no trouble in flooring you,
But you will have a hard time in getting up.
 
I do not want to fall to the ground for this,
For with my grip I'll take away all your strength.

 
And I cover myself with crossed arms And I can use all the previous techniques; And I won't miss any backhand hits, Because I can do them all one by one.
 
Not the forehand nor the backhand hits:
For, with my countermove,
your guard is all but lost.

 
Snatch the dagger, dislocate and tie too
And throw you to the floor, all these I can do.
 
Of the past four things, only one you can't do:
Even with this contrary I'll throw you to the ground.

 
I do the contrary of the first king of dagger
And from above I'll pierce your arm.
 
I do the contrary of the first king of dagger
And with my cover I'll hurt you, and worse.

 
For the contrary which says to hurt and worse
I show you here what you can do to that.
 
This tie is no big deal for me
And with it I'll pierce your back.

 
The contrary to the contrary I do to the first master
Because the contrary to the contrary is a fine master.
 
For the first thing I do the contrary to the contrary;
And I'll be the first one to grab the dagger.

 
Here start the backhand techniques, strong techniques; Because of these techniques, so many were killed: And my students will start these techniques And will start backhand.
 
For the technique of the master, the dagger is
conquered, And I will gravely pierce you.

 
Here I will throw you to the ground;
This I'll do to you, and then, worse.
 
You are grounded because of your poor knowledge:
And you can know more than that.

 
And with this I'll hurt your arm
The way you can feel me holding and doing it.
 
I can easily dislocate your arm
And without effort grab your dagger.

 
This is a strong dislocation
And I can kill you with your own dagger.
 
I grab your dagger, this I want to do,
And if I want to, I tie you with this key.

 
I'll turn your dagger on top with my left arm,
And right away with the under key I'll block you.
 
This is called the strong under key
And it's tie capable of killing: Which tie, without any lying, If not well applied can be escaped.

 
I can do this to the contrary of the master's backhand,
And with this grip I'll make you kneel to the ground.
   
 
I am a master who grabs with both hands And I can hurt you above and below: If I twist your shoulders and don't let your arm go, This way the first student will hurt you.
 
My master told the truth without failing:
I can take your dagger and you can't leave.

 
I'm quite ready to throw you to the ground
And if you don't break your head you'll have a deal.
 
This is another tie to throw you to the ground
And the opponent is not quite sure against this hold.

 
I see that you are ready to go right to the ground
Of this I'm quite sure, and you won't get up.
 
Also in this way I'll put you on the ground,
And when on the ground, I'll do you worse.

 
I'll give your dagger one twist
And by that it will be taken from you.
 
If I twist your dagger by your elbow
You will feel that it will be grabbed away from you.

 
Of the master who grabs with both hands
I do this contrary in my defense.
 
I did this move with my right hand
And I'll push your dagger in your thigh.

 
I want each master to know That a grab on the collar is not very effective; Because of the damage I will inflict to your elbow I will soon hear your arm crack.
 
After hitting your elbow I'd better leave it
And right away come after your dagger.

 
I'll hurt you by your fist or by your elbow
I'll dislocate it and you'll leave me right away.
 
I want to try this way to throw you to the ground,
And if it doesn't work I'll try something else.

 
Be sure that you'll fall to the ground
And I don't care of your dagger.
 
You'll feel that over my right shoulder
I won't fail to break your left arm.

 
By the way I grabbed you and hold you
You'll fall to the ground on your shoulders.
 
This move I do to take your dagger away
And with other moves a lot I'll impair you.

 
If I can twist this arm of yours,
I'll have you in the under key.
 
If you start pulling above or below,
With this crossing you'll lose your dagger.

 
By holding your arm with both my hands
I'll take away the dagger from your hand.
 
To the student who doesn't know his move
I'll show him how to grab his dagger.

 
There is no man who fights better dagger to dagger: With harness or without I will offend him greatly and my delight is to fight him inside the circle, I'll win each one of them with this close fight.
 
With the avoidance done by my master
By this hold and avoidance I'll make you sad.

 
With the master cover, which is so perfect,
With half a turn your chest I wounded.
 
With the master cover and with half a turn I can still wound you, tie you and take away your dagger.

 
The left hand I used to such a defense, That this contrary will right away make you offense.
 
With my left hand I'll make you turn
And with this contrary I can wound you well.

 
Being armed, I want to use this cover And right away I want to enter in the middle key, And that is the end of the battle, For against it there is no valid defense.
 
I'm not going to enter in the middle tie,
And I'm going to wound you while you turn

 
Being you armed and I armed
You see that I have thrust the knife in your hand.
 
For the twist I made you do,
Piercing you, I'll throw you to the ground.

 
With weapons, this is a strongest crossing
For you can tie it above and below;
This goes to the tie above
And that goes to middle tie.
 
With this hold that I have, I can do many techniques,
Grab away the dagger, break, wound and tie;
It's the fastest to grab the dagger from the hand
Without being deceived by the opponent.

 
If I twist the dagger by your elbow,
Your dagger will be mine, no doubt.
 
Without losing hold of you, I go underneath your arm: And from behind your back I will burden you.

 
If I can give your arm half a turn
With the lower tie, your life I'll take.
 
This way I can dislocate your arm,
And I could also tie you with the lower key.

 
Of this master the first scholar
Can take away the dagger and do this fight.
 
Although this technique is not used too much,
It's well done by him who practiced it.


Literal Translation of Fiore de Liberi's printed words by Hermes Michelini, 2001