349. ‘E’ mi par d’or in hora udire il messo’

From time to time I seem to hear that messenger

that my lady sends, calling me to her:

so I alter inside and outside myself,

and in not so many years am so humbled,

that I almost fail to recognise myself:

all my old ways of living are banished.

I’d be content if I knew the moment when

I must go, but certainly the time is near.

O happy the day, when, issuing from this

earthly prison, leaving my weak, and heavy,

and mortal dress broken and scattered,

departing from such dense shadows,

flying so far into the blue serene,

I’ll see my Lord, and that lady of mine.