| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XXIII. Grief
‘Weep, Lovers, sith Love’s very self doth weep’ | | By Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) |
| | From ‘La Vita Nuova’
Translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
WEEP, Lovers, sith Love’s very self doth weep, | |
| And sith the cause for weeping is so great; | |
| When now so many dames, of such estate | |
| In worth, show with their eyes a grief so deep. | |
| For Death the churl has laid his leaden sleep | 5 |
| Upon a damsel who was fair of late, | |
| Defacing all our earth should celebrate,— | |
| Yea all save virtue, which the soul doth keep. | |
| Now hearken how much Love did honour her. | |
| I myself saw him in his proper form | 10 |
| Bending above the motionless sweet dead, | |
| And often gazing into Heaven; for there | |
| The soul now sits which when her life was warm | |
| Dwelt with the joyful beauty that is fled. | | | | |
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