277. ‘S’Amor novo consiglio non n’apporta,’

If Love does not bring me new counsel,

my life must change, unwillingly:

the sad heart’s anguished so with grief and fear,

now desire still lives, but hope is dead:

so my life’s confused, discomforted,

completely, and I weep night and day,

weary, rudderless in a stormy sea,

on an uncertain course with no true pilot.

An imaginary guide leads me, since my true

one is under the earth, or rather in heaven,

from where she shines brighter than ever in the heart:

but not to my eyes, because a sad veil

conceals that longed-for light from them,

and makes my hair white before my time.