284. ‘Sí breve è ’l tempo e ’l penser sí veloce’

The time’s so brief, the thought so swift

that brings my dead lady back to me,

the medicine is so transient for my grief:

still, while I see her, nothing hurts me.

Love, that holds and binds me to this cross,

trembles when he sees her within the threshold

of my soul, where she kills me, still so noble,

so sweet in looks, and with a voice so gentle.

I see her, the lady of the highest house,

with her calm brow driving sad thoughts

away from my dark and heavy heart.

The soul, that cannot endure such light,

sighs and says: ‘O blessed be the hour

you opened up this path with your eyes!’