| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | Mors et Vita | | By Jacopo Sannazzaro (1458–1530) |
| | Translated by James Glassford, of Dougalston
ALAS! when I behold this empty show | |
| Of life, and think how soon it shall have fled; | |
| When I consider how the honoured head | |
| Is daily struck by death’s mysterious blow,— | |
| My heart is wasted like the melting snow, | 5 |
| And hope, that comforter, is nearly dead; | |
| Seeing these wings have been so long outspread, | |
| And yet so sluggish is my flight and low. | |
| But if I therefore should complain and weep,— | |
| If chide with love, or fortune, or the fair,— | 10 |
| No cause I have; myself must bear it all, | |
| Who, like a man ’mid trifles lulled to sleep, | |
| With death beside me, feed on empty air, | |
| Nor think how soon this mouldering garb must fall. | | | | |
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