From the Spanish of Luis Ponce de Leon.
Region of life and light!
Land of the good whose earthly toils are o’er!
Nor frost nor heat may blight
Thy vernal beauty, fertile
shore,
Yielding thy blessed fruits for evermore!
There without crook or sling,
Walks the good shepherd; blossoms white and red
Round his meek temples cling;
And to sweet pastures led,
His own loved flock beneath his eye is fed.
He guides, and near him they
Follow delighted, for he makes them go
Where dwells eternal May,
And heavenly roses blow,
Deathless, and gathered but again to grow.
He leads them to the height
Named of the infinite and long-sought Good,
And fountains of delight;
And where his feet have stood
Springs up, along the way, their tender food.
And when, in the mid skies,
The climbing sun has reached his highest bound,
Reposing as he lies,
With all his flock around,
He witches the still air with numerous sound.
From his sweet lute flow forth
Immortal harmonies, of power to still
All passions born of earth,
And draw the ardent will
Its destiny of goodness to fulfil.
Might but a little part,
A wandering breath of that high melody,
Descend into my heart,
And change it till it be
Transformed and swallowed up, oh love! in thee.
Ah! then my soul should know,
Beloved! where thou liest at noon of day,
And from this place of woe
Released, should take its
way
To mingle with thy flock and never stray.
Fatima and Raduan. deg.
From the Spanish.
Diamante falso y fingido,
Engastado en pedernal, &c.
“False diamond set in flint! the caverns of
the mine
Are warmer than the breast that holds that faithless
heart of thine;
Thou art fickle as the sea, thou art wandering as
the wind,
And the restless ever-mounting flame is not more hard
to bind.
If the tears I shed were tongues, yet all too few
would be
To tell of all the treachery that thou hast shown
to me.
Oh! I could chide thee sharply—but
every maiden knows
That she who chides her lover, forgives him ere he
goes.
“Thou hast called me oft the flower of all Grenada’s
maids,
Thou hast said that by the side of me the first and
fairest fades;
And they thought thy heart was mine, and it seemed
to every one
That what thou didst to win my love, from love of
me was done.
Alas! if they but knew thee, as mine it is to know,
They well might see another mark to which thine arrows
go;
But thou giv’st me little heed—for
I speak to one who knows
That she who chides her lover, forgives him ere he
goes.