41. ‘Quando dal proprio sito si remove’

When that tree that Apollo once loved

in its human form moves from its proper place,

Vulcan sighs and sweats at his work,

to refresh Jupiter’s sharp lightning-bolts:

who sends now thunder, now snow, or rain,

without regard to July or January:

the earth weeps, and the sun stays far away,

because he sees his dear friend vanish.

Then those fierce planets Saturn and Mars

blaze out again, and armed Orion

shatters the poor sailor’s tiller and shrouds:

and stormy Aeolus makes Neptune,

and Juno, and us, feel the departure

of that lovely face the angels wait for.

Notes: Vulcan the god’s smith, Aeolus the god of winds, and the sky, Neptune of the sea, Juno the goddess of earth. Mars signifies war and Saturn grief, while Orion is the constellation of storms.

‘Mars Receives Weapons from Venus and Vulcan’ - Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert (Dutch, 1624 - 1654), The Rijksmuseum