43. ‘Il figliuol di Latona avea già nove’

Apollo, Latona’s son, had sent his gaze

down nine times, from his high balcony

looking for one who in former times moved

his sighs in vain, and now moves another’s.

So that tired of searching, not knowing where

she might be, whether near or far,

he appeared to us like one maddened by grief,

who cannot find again a much loved thing.

And positioned apart and being so sad

he did not see that face return, that if I live

will be praised in more than a thousand lines:

and suffering had even altered that face,

until the lovely eyes left off weeping:

so the sky remained in its former state.

Note: Suggests poems 41-43 concern a nine-day period of retreat by Laura due to mourning or perhaps illness.