216. ‘Tutto ’l dí piango: et poi la notte, quando’

All day I weep: and then in the night

when wretched mortals take their rest,

I find myself weeping, redoubling my ills:

so I spend the time that’s mine in tears.

My eyes are drowned in sad moisture,

the heart with pain: and I am the worst

of creatures, the arrows of love pierce me

so all over, now that peace is exiled.

Alas, with one sun following on another,

one shadow after another, I’ve already passed

the greater part of this death, that they call life.

Another’s failing grieves me more than my own:

that living Pity, and solace of my faith,

sees the fire burning, and will not help me.