185. ‘Questa fenice de l’aurata piume’

This phoenix with golden plumage

round her lovely neck, noble and white,

seems to have formed a dear necklace

by which all hearts are softened, mine consumed,

in the form of a natural diadem that lights

the air all round: and the silent furnace of Love

draws a subtle liquid fire from there

that warms me in the most ungentle weather.

A purple covering with a sky-blue hem

scattered with roses covers the lovely creature:

a novel dress, a rare and singular beauty.

Report places her, and hides her, in the rich

and scented vales of Arabian hills,

who flies in truth so nobly through our skies.