The Fair who now forsake
Us in such high disdain
On tiptoe will return
And drink to us again.

O boon companions, how
Shall we then make reply?
Together we will drain

Just one more glass, then die.

VITTORIO ALFIERI, 1749-1803

G

REAT father Alighier, if from the skies

This thy disciple prostrate thou dost see
Before thy gravestone, shaken with deep sighs,
O turn thou not in wrathfulness from me!
O of thy kindness, favouring pure desires,
Illuminate me with a ray of thine;
Must who to pristine, deathless fame aspires
Take arms 'gainst envy and each fell design?"
"I did so, son, to my great sorrow, for
Thereby the names of men too vile to tread
Under my feet are heard for evermore.

If thou dost trust in me, why droop thy head?
Go thunder, triumph, and if thou shouldst chance
To meet with such, pass by nor deign a glance."

CAMERETTA che già in te chiudesti

quel si gentil d'amor mastro profondo,
per cui Laura ebbe in terra onor celesti;
o di pensier soavemente mesti
solitario ricovero giocondo ;

di quai lagrime amare il petto inondo
nel veder ch' oggi inonorata resti!
Prezioso diaspro, agata ed oro
fôran debito fregio, e appena degno

di rivestir sì nobile tesoro.

è il mondo,

Ma no: tomba fregiar d' uom ch' ebbe regno
vuolsi, e por gemme ove disdice alloro:
qui basta il nome di quel divo ingegno.

IDO destriero, mansueto e ardente,

che dell' alato piè giovato hai spesso al tuo signor sì ch' ei seguía dappresso il cervo rapidissimo fuggente;

tu riedi a me, da non gran tempo assente;
ma pur più non ritrovi in me lo stesso,
ch' io son da mille e mille cure oppresso
egro di core, d'animo e di mente.

M'è il rivederti doglia e, in un, diletto;
di là tu vieni, ov'è il mio sol pensiero
sovvienti ancor, quand' ella il collo e il petto
t'iva palpando, indi con dolce impero
tuo fren reggeva? E tu, pien d' intelletto,
del caro peso te ne andavi altero.

O

LITTLE room, embracing that great fame

For which the whole wide world were small, Love's sweet

And mighty singer through whom Laura's name

On earth did with celestial honour meet;

O solitary, jocund resting-place,
Where gentle melancholy doth abide,

Often the bitter tears have bathed my face,
Seeing thy rightful homages denied!
Jasper and agate and refined gold
Would deck thee fittingly, nay, even they
Such noble worth too humbly would enfold;
Upon a royal tomb your garlands lay,

Where laurels fade, bring hither gems of price,
Here write his name divine, it doth suffice.

IDO, my gentle and yet ardent steed,

Fwhose

Whose flying hoof hath served full many a day

Thy master and enabled him to speed

After the swift and fugitive deer away,
We meet again, nor was I absent long,
And yet in me a stranger thou wilt find,
A thousand, thousand cares about me throng,
I am grown sick in heart and soul and mind.

By intermingled joy and pain oppressed,

I see thee come whence my sole thought doth bide:
Dost thou remember how she stroked thy chest
And neck, then curbed thee with sweet tyranny?
And thou didst go thy way with conscious pride
In the so precious burden laid on thee.

S

UBLIME specchio di veraci detti,

mostram, in corpo e

mostrami in corpo e in anima qual sono.

Capelli, or radi in fronte, e rossi pretti;

lunga statura, e capo a terra prono ;
sottil persona in su due stinchi schietti ;
bianca pelle, occhi azzurri, aspetto buono ;
giusto naso, bel labbro, denti eletti ;
pallido in volto più che un re sul trono ;
or duro, acerbo, ora pieghevol, mite;
irato sempre e non maligno mai;

la mente e il cor meco in perpetua lite :
per lo più mesto, e talor lieto assai :

or stimandomi Achille ed or Tersite. Uom, se' tu grande o vil? Muori, e il saprai.

S

PERAR, temere, rimembrar, dolersi;

sempre bramar, non appagarsi mai ; dietro al ben falso sospirare assai,

nè il ver (che ognun ha in sè) giammai godersi ; spesso da più, talor da men tenersi ;

nè appien conoscer sè che in braccio a' guai ; e, giunto all' orlo del sepolcro omai,

della mal spesa vita ravvedersi ;

tal, credo, è l' uomo, o tale almen son io ; benchè il core in ricchezze o in vili onori non ponga, e gloria e amore a me sien Dio. L'un mi fa di me stesso viver fuori : dell' altra in me ritrammi il bel desio : nulla ho d' ambi finor che i lor furori.

M

IRROR sublime of truth, O manifest

Me soul and body as I am: hair red, Now sparse about the temples, for the rest Lofty in stature with a drooping head, A meagre person on slim spindles raised, Fair skin, blue eyes, in my expression kind, Straight nose, firm lips, teeth worthy to be praised, Paler than any crownèd king, my mind

Perpetually contrasting with my heart, Now soft and mild, now bitter and severe, Never malign, but fretful oft I fear, Sometimes hilarious, mostly given to woe, Now an Achilles, now Thersites. Art Thou great, O man, or mean? Die, and shalt know!

'o hope, remember, suffer grief and fear,
To nurse desire yet be unsatisfied,

To worship at false shrines from year to year,
Ignoring good that in us all doth hide;
To be too humble or too proud, to find
Self-knowledge only in the heart of strife,
With one foot in the grave, back into mind
To call the stages of an ill-spent life;

Such, I believe, man's lot, at least 'tis mine,
Though I ne'er sought vain dignities nor pelf,
And Love and Glory are to me divine;
The one doth carry me out of myself,
The other's wiles entice me back again;
Nothing I know of either save their pain.