48. ‘Se mai foco per foco non si spense’

Since fire is never quenched with fire,

nor rivers ever dried by the rain,

but a thing’s always increased by its like,

and sometimes its opposite makes it blaze higher,

Love, who have power over my thoughts,

and nourish one soul in two bodies,

why do you there obey a different rule,

making desire weaken by desire?

Perhaps like the great falls along the Nile

that deafen those around with their vast roar,

or the sun that dazzles those who gaze too hard,

so desire that is not in tune with itself,

unrestrained in its object, comes to grief,

and by spurring hard its speed is slowed.