102. ‘Cesare, poi che ’l traditor d’Egitto’

When Ptolemy the Egyptian traitor

made him a gift of Pompey’s honoured head,

Caesar, hiding his obvious delight,

had tears in his eyes, so it is written:

and Hannibal, seeing harsh Fortune

so hostile to his troubled empire,

smiled among his sad and weeping people

to lessen the bitter injury.

And so it is that every mind

veils its passion with its opposite,

cloaked with a bright or a dark look:

therefore if you see me smile or sing,

I do it since that is the only way

to hide the anguish of my weeping.

Note: See poem 44 for Pompey. Hannibal grieved for Carthage.

‘The Continence of Scipio’ - Karel van Mander (I) (Flemish, 1548 – 1606), The Rijksmuseum