| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XXVIII. Loneliness
‘That lady of all gentle memories’ | | By Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) |
| | From ‘La Vita Nuova’
Translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
THAT lady of all gentle memories | |
| Had lighted on my soul;—whose new abode | |
| Lies now, as it was well ordained of God, | |
| Among the poor in heart, where Mary is. | |
| Love, knowing that dear image to be his, | 5 |
| Woke up within the sick heart sorrow-bow’d, | |
| Unto the sighs which are its weary load | |
| Saying, ‘Go forth.’ And they went forth, I wis; | |
| Forth went they from my breast that throbbed and ached; | |
| With such a pang as oftentimes will bathe | 10 |
| Mine eyes with tears when I am left alone. | |
| And still those sighs which drew the heaviest breath | |
| Came whispering thus: ‘O noble intellect! | |
| It is a year to-day that thou art gone.’ | | | | |
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