350. ‘Questo nostro caduco et fragil bene,’

This fragile and fallen good of ours,

this wind and shadow, Beauty by name,

was never, at least not in our age, complete

except in one body, and that was to my pain:

since Nature does not wish, nor is it fitting,

to make one rich, by impoverishing others:

yet all its wealth was everywhere in her

(pardon me you who are lovely, or think so).

There was never such beauty, ancient or modern,

nor will be, I believe: but so concealed

the world in error hardly noticed it.

She left us soon: and I am glad to lose

that little glimpse of her that heaven gave me,

only to take more pleasure in her sacred light.