And ’tis a pain that pain to miss;
But, of all pains, the greatest pain
It is to love, but love in vain.
Virtue now, nor noble blood,
Nor wit by love is understood;
Gold alone does passion move,
Gold monopolizes love;
A curse on her, and on the man
Who this traffic first began!
A curse on him who found the ore!
A curse on him who digged the store!
A curse on him who did refine it!
A curse on him who first did coin it!
A curse, all curses else above,
On him who used it first in love!
Gold begets in brethren hate;
Gold in families debate;
Gold does friendship separate;
Gold does civil wars create.
These the smallest harms of it!
Gold, alas! does love beget.
Cowley’s Translation.
&nb
sp;TheGrasshopper
Happy Insect! what can
be
In happiness compared
to thee?
Fed with nourishment
divine,
The dewy Morning’s
gentle wine!
Nature waits upon thee
still,
And thy verdant cup
does fill;
’Tis filled wherever
thou dost tread,
Nature’s self’s
thy Ganymede.
Thou dost drink, and
dance, and sing;
Happier than the happiest
king!
All the fields which
thou dost see,
All the plants, belong
to thee;
All that summer hours
produce,
Fertile made with early
juice.
Man for thee does sow
and plow;
Farmer he, and landlord
thou!
Thou dost innocently
joy;
Nor does thy luxury
destroy;
The shepherd gladly
heareth thee,
More harmonious than
he.
Thee country hinds with
gladness hear,
Prophet of the ripened
year!
Thee Phoebus loves,
and does inspire;
Phoebus is himself thy
sire.
To thee, of all things
upon Earth,
Life’s no longer
than thy mirth.
Happy insect, happy
thou!
Dost neither age nor
winter know;
But, when thou’st
drunk, and danced, and sung
Thy fill, the flowery
leaves among,
(Voluptuous, and wise
withal,
Epicurean animal!)
Sated with thy summer
feast,
Thou retir’st
to endless rest.
Cowley’s Translation,
Theswallow
Foolish prater, what
dost thou
So early at my window
do,
With thy tuneless serenade?
Well ’t had been
had Tereus made
Thee as dumb as Philomel;
There his knife had
done but well.
In thy undiscovered
nest
Thou dost all the winter
rest,
And dreamest o’er
thy summer joys,
Free from the stormy
season’s noise:
Free from th’
ill thou’st done to me;
Who disturbs or seeks
out thee?
Hadst thou all the charming
notes
Of the wood’s
poetic throats,