XXVIII. No, no, no, no, I cannot hate my foe. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586). Sonnets and Poetical Translations. Seccombe and Arber, comps. 1904. Elizabethan Sonnets

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Sonnets and Poetical Translations

XXVIII. No, no, no, no, I cannot hate my foe

Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)

To the tune of a Neapolitan Song, which beginneth No, no, no, no

NO, no, no, no, I cannot hate my foe,
Although with cruel fire,
First thrown on my desire,
She sacks my rendered sprite.
For so fair a flame embraces	5
All the places
Where that heat of all heats springeth,
That it bringeth
To my dying heart some pleasure:
Since his treasure	10
Burneth bright in fairest light. No, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, I cannot hate my foe,
Although with cruel fire,
First blown on my desire,
She sacks my rendered sprite.	15
Since our lives be not immortal,
But to mortal
Fetters tied, do wait the hour
Of death’s power,
They have no cause to be sorry	20
Who with glory
End the way, where all men stay. No, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, I cannot hate my foe,
Although with cruel fire,
First thrown on my desire,	25
She sacks my rendered sprite.
No man doubts; whom beauty killeth,
Fair death feeleth;
And in whom fair death proceedeth,
Glory breedeth.	30
So that I, in her beams dying,
Glory trying;
Though in pain, cannot complain. No, no, no, no.