327. ‘L’aura et l’odore e ’l refrigerio et l’ombra’

The breeze, the scent, the coolness and the shade

of the sweet laurel and its flowering aspect,

a lamp, and resting place for my weary life,

he who empties the world has wholly taken.

As the sun whom his sister eclipses for us,

so my noble light has vanished,

I beg Death to aid me against Death,

love has so overwhelmed me with dark thought.

Lovely lady, you have slept a brief sleep:

now you have woken among blessed spirits,

where the soul enters into its Maker:

and if my verses have any power,

your name, sacred among noble minds,

will become an eternal memory down here.