84. ‘Occhi, piangete: accompagnate il core’

Weep, eyes: accompany the heart

that is about to die for your failings.

‘So we are, always weeping: we must mourn

for another’s fault rather than our own.’

Yet it was through you that Love first entered,

where he still lives as though it were his home.

‘We opened the way because of that hope

that came from within that heart that is to die.’

These claims are not, as they may seem, equal:

for it was you, so eager at first sight,

who did harm to yourself, and to that one.

‘Now that is what saddens us more than anything,

that perfect judgement is so rare,

and we are blamed for another’s fault.’