79. ‘S’al principio risponde il fine e ’l mezzo’

in which I’ve sighed, should echo the beginning,

I’ll still have no more help from breeze or shade,

though I felt my passion’s flame increase.

Love, with whose thoughts I am ever one,

under whose yoke I must ever breathe,

so governs me I am only half a man,

turning my eyes too often towards my harm.

So I go wasting from day to day,

so secretly that only I’m aware

that it’s her look that destroys my heart.

I don’t know how long this final sorrow

I’ve brought the spirit to can stay with me,

since death is near, and life is fleeting.

Notes