Part 11 (1/2)
_LOVE'S JUSTIFICATION._
_Ben pu talor col mio._
Sometimes my love I dare to entertain With soaring hope not over-credulous; Since if all human loves were impious, Unto what end did G.o.d the world ordain?
For loving thee what license is more plain Than that I praise thereby the glorious Source of all joys divine, that comfort us In thee, and with chaste fires our soul sustain?
False hope belongs unto that love alone Which with declining beauty wanes and dies, And, like the face it wors.h.i.+ps, fades away.
That hope is true which the pure heart hath known, Which alters not with time or death's decay, Yielding on earth earnest of Paradise.
LX.
SECOND READING.
_LOVE'S JUSTIFICATION._
_Ben pu talor col casto._
It must be right sometimes to entertain Chaste love with hope not over-credulous; Since if all human loves were impious, Unto what end did G.o.d the world ordain?
If I love thee and bend beneath thy reign, 'Tis for the sake of beauty glorious Which in thine eyes divine is stored for us, And drives all evil thought from its domain.
That is not love whose tyranny we own In loveliness that every moment dies; Which, like the face it wors.h.i.+ps, fades away: True love is that which the pure heart hath known, Which alters not with time or death's decay, Yielding on earth earnest of Paradise.
LXI.
AFTER THE DEATH OF VITTORIA COLONNA.
_IRREPARABLE LOSS._
_Se 'l mie rozzo martello._
When my rude hammer to the stubborn stone Gives human shape, now that, now this, at will, Following his hand who wields and guides it still, It moves upon another's feet alone: But that which dwells in heaven, the world doth fill With beauty by pure motions of its own; And since tools fas.h.i.+on tools which else were none, Its life makes all that lives with living skill.
Now, for that every stroke excels the more The higher at the forge it doth ascend, Her soul that fas.h.i.+oned mine hath sought the skies: Wherefore unfinished I must meet my end, If G.o.d, the great artificer, denies That aid which was unique on earth before.
LXII.
AFTER THE DEATH OF VITTORIA COLONNA.
_LOVE'S TRIUMPH OVER DEATH._
_Quand' el ministro de' sospir._