WHATEVER WHILE THE THOUGHT COMES OVER ME
by: Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
- HATEVER
while the thought comes over me
- That I may not again
- Behold that lady whom I mourn for now,
- About my heart my mind brings constantly
- So much of extreme pain
- That I say, Soul of mine, who stayest thou?
- Truly the anguish, soul, that we must bow
- Beneath, until we win out of this life,
- Gives me full oft a fear that trembleth:
- So that I call on Death
- Even as on Sleep one calleth after strife,
- Saying, Come unto me. Life showeth grim
- And bare; and if one dies, I envy him,
-
- For ever, among all my sighs which burn,
- There is a piteous speech
- That clamors upon death continually:
- Yea, unto him doth my whole spirit turn
- Since first his hand did reach
- My lady's life with most foul cruelty.
- But from the height of woman's fairness she,
- Going up from us with the joy we had,
- Grew perfectly and spiritually fair;
- That so she treads even there
- A light of Love which makes the Angels glad,
- And even unto their subtle minds can bring
- A certain awe of profound marveling.
"Whatever while the thought
comes over me" was translated into English by D.G. Rossetti
(1828-1882). |
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