269. ‘Rotta è l’alta colonna e ’l verde lauro’

The high column and the green laurel are broken

that cast a shade for my weary thoughts:

I have lost what I do not hope to find again

in north or south wind, from ocean to ocean.

You have taken my double treasure from me, Death,

which made me live joyfully, and go nobly,

and the earth cannot restore it, nor empire,

nor oriental gem, nor power of gold.

But if destiny consents to this,

what can I do, except display my sad soul,

wet eyes forever, and my bowed head?

O this life of ours, which is so fair, outwardly,

how easily it loses in a morning

what many years with great pain have acquired!

Note: Giovanni Colonna died on the 3rd July 1348, three months after Laura.

‘View of the Forum in Rome’ - Hugh William (British, 1773 – 1829), The Yale Centre for British Art