XXXVII.

PERHAPS TO VITTORIA COLONNA.

LOVE’S SERVITUDE.

S’ alcun legato e pur.

He who is bound by some great benefit,
    As to be raised from death to life again,
    How shall he recompense that gift, or gain
    Freedom from servitude so infinite? 
Yet if ’twere possible to pay the debt,
    He’d lose that kindness which we entertain
    For those who serve us well; since it is plain
    That kindness needs some boon to quicken it. 
Wherefore, O lady, to maintain thy grace,
    So far above my fortune, what I bring
    Is rather thanklessness than courtesy: 
For if both met as equals face to face,
    She whom I love could not be called my king;—­
    There is no lordship in equality.

XXXVIII.

LOVE’S VAIN EXPENSE.

Rendete a gli occhi miei.

Give back unto mine eyes, ye fount and rill,
    Those streams, not yours, that are so full and strong,
    That swell your springs, and roll your waves along
    With force unwonted in your native hill!

And thou, dense air, weighed with my sighs so chill,
    That hidest heaven’s own light thick mists among,
    Give back those sighs to my sad heart, nor wrong
    My visual ray with thy dark face of ill!

Let earth give back the footprints that I wore,
    That the bare grass I spoiled may sprout again;
    And Echo, now grown deaf, my cries return!

Loved eyes, unto mine eyes those looks restore,
    And let me woo another not in vain,
    Since how to please thee I shall never learn!

XXXIX.

LOVE’S ARGUMENT WITH REASON.

La ragion meco si lamenta.

Reason laments and grieves full sore with me,
    The while I hope by loving to be blest;
    With precepts sound and true philosophy
    My shame she quickens thus within my breast: 
’What else but death will that sun deal to thee—­
    Nor like the phoenix in her flaming nest?’
    Yet nought avails this wise morality;
    No hand can save a suicide confessed. 
I know my doom; the truth I apprehend: 
    But on the other side my traitorous heart
    Slays me whene’er to wisdom’s words I bend. 
Between two deaths my lady stands apart: 
    This death I dread; that none can comprehend. 
    In this suspense body and soul must part.

XL.

FIRST READING.

LOVE’S LOADSTONE.

No so s’ e la desiata luce.