Vowing to pay their toil in such a sort Such was the malice, sudden in its growth, Too high for human judgment to pursue, SONNETS OF CAMOENS. (Translated by Richard Garnett.) THE beauty of this free aerial height, With ancient chestnuts shadowy and green; The gentle course their tranquil banks between Of brooks acquainted solely with delight; Sea's distant beat; land novel to my sight; The Sun's descent where mountains shut the scene; The clouds' encounter in their harmless fight; The cheated spirit serves but to offend, The joy that thy companionship would lend Tagus, whose streams on Lusitania's plain Errant in fairest fields with softest flow, My term of dateless exile would I know; And mournful thus and desolate I go, As deeming never to return again. My envious fortune, ever wise to tell How best my joy to sorrow may be changed, Thee I bewail, her I upbraid. Farewell! Soon shall these sighs be spent on winds estranged, And alien waters soothe this swelling heart. Tagus, with countenance how different We saw and see, and are and have been seen! Would that we were so in all things, and as pain O for a solitude so absolute, Rapt from the spite of Fate so far away, Or lonely glen not anywhere made gay I, sepulchred in life, alive in death, Freely might breathe my plaint; perceiving there The grief whose magnitude naught measureth Less by the brilliance of the bright day mocked, Soothed by the dark day more than otherwhere. Country, Life's raft whereby her sea bestows To thee I fly; and if indeed for woes Flight cure be found, and change may Fate control, Victory I'll sing, and in the shade extol Honor triumphant o'er Ambition's throes. Here Spring no flower, no fruit doth Autumn scant; Is slumber, seal of peace, and burdening Care, The goodly apple of this goodly tree Nature with blood and milk willed to adorn, Be thou by whirlwind's violence uptorn! BABYLON AND SION (GOA AND LISBON). Here, where fecundity of Babel frames Stuff for all ills wherewith the world doth teem; Where loyal Love is slurred with disesteem, For Venus all controls, and all defames; Where vices vaunts are counted, virtues shames; Where Tyranny o'er Honor lords supreme; Where blind and erring sovereignty doth deem That God for deeds will be content with names: Here in this world where whatso is is wrong, Where Birth and Worth and Wisdom begging go My days, because I must. Woe to me! woe! ON THE DEATH OF A COMRADE IN AFRICA. Few years and evil to my life were lent, All with hard toil and misery replete : Light did so swiftly from my eyes retreat, That ere five lusters quite were gone, I went. Ocean I roamed and isle and continent, Seeking some remedy for life unsweet; Where Alemquer the blooming nurtured me; COMPOSED IN PRISON. Brooding in sadness o'er my evil case, Nor fruit of them doth their slow march reveal, Save this they are no more: while Fortune's wheel Turns on, and dizzily my spirit sways. Stupid and dazed with dull confinement's clog, My erring sense avails not to decide If I am proffering speech to stander-by, How far accumulating years extend By schooling, with mistrustful heart presage Lost to my sight ere half the race be run; My eyes, and by their witness knowledge take THE GOLDEN AGE. BY TASSO. [From "Aminta."] [TORQUATO TAsso, an Italian poet, was born at Sorrento, March 11, 1544, the son of Bernardo Tasso, a poet of considerable distinction. He received his early education in Naples, Rome, Pesaro, and Venice, and in compliance with his father's wish studied law at Padua, but soon abandoned it after the successful reception of his poem "Rinaldo." He then repaired to Bologna, where he studied philosophy, made the acquaintance of distinguished literary men, and worked upon his great epic “Gerusalemme Liberata" (Jerusalem Delivered). In 1565 he entered the service of Cardinal Luigi d'Este and later that of Alfonso II., reigning duke of Ferrara. During the latter part of his life he suffered from attacks of insanity, and finally became so violent in accusing the duke of a design to poison him that he was placed in a lunatic asylum. Having been released at the intercession of Prince Gonzaga of Mantua, he wandered from city to city, broken in health and spirits. In 1595 he was summoned to Rome by Pope Clement VIII. to receive the honor of a public coronation, but fell ill on his arrival, and died April 22, 1595. His chief production, "Jerusalem Delivered," is a heroic record of the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders under the command of Godfrey de Bouillon. Other works are: “Aminta,” a pastoral drama; "Torrismondo," a tragedy; and several lyric poems.] O LOVELY age of gold! Not that the rivers rolled With milk, or that the woods wept honey-dew; Not that the ready ground Or the mild serpent had no tooth that slew: Forever was in sight, Or that the heaven, which burns And now is cold by turns, Looked out in glad and everlasting light; No, nor that even the insolent ships from far Brought war to no new lands, nor riches worse than war. But solely that that vain And breath-invented pain, That idol of mistake, that worshiped cheat, That Honor since so called By vulgar minds appalled, Played not the tyrant with our nature yet. It had not come to fret The sweet and happy fold Of gentle human kind; |