The Complete Poetry of John Milton (23 page)
Read The Complete Poetry of John Milton Online
Authors: John Milton
Tags: #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Poetry, #European
Diodati, and I will say it to you with wonder, / that stubborn I, who used to contemn love / and frequently scoffed at his snares, / now have fallen where upright man sometimes entangles himself. / No tresses of gold nor vermeil cheeks [5] / deceive me thus, but under a new-found fancy / foreign beauty which blesses my heart, / a look highly virtuous, and in her eyes / that tranquil brightness of amiable black, / speech adorned with more than one language, [10] / and the song that could well mislead the laboring moon / from its course in middle sky, / and from her eyes shoots such great fire / that enwaxing my ears would be little help to me.
1
(
1630 ?
)
1
Milton thought of the Sirens’ singing to Ulysses, whose men’s ears were sealed to avoid enticement (
Od.
, XII, 39–58).
Per certo i bei vostr’occhi, Donna mia,
Esser non può che non sian lo mio sole
Sì mi percuoton forte, come ei suole
Per l’arene di Libia chi s’invia,
5
Mentre un caldo vapor (nè senti’ pria)
Da quel lato si spinge ove mi duole,
Che forse amanti nelle lor parole
Chiaman sospir; io non so che si sia:
Parte rinchiusa, e turbida si cela
10
Scossomi il petto, e poi n’uscendo poco,
Quivi d’attorno o s’agghiaccia, o s’ingiela;
Ma quanto a gli occhi giunge a trovar loco
Tutte le notti a me suol far piovose
Finchè mia Alba rivien colma di rose.
In truth your fair eyes, my lady, / could not but be my sun; / they powerfully strike me as the sun him / who dispatches his way through the sands of Libya, / while a fervent steam (not felt before) [5] / from that side proceeds where is my grief, / that perhaps lovers in their words / call a sigh; I know not what it may be: / the hidden part, and turbid thus concealed, / has shaken my breast, and then a bit escaping, [10] / there from being enclosed has either frozen or congealed; / but as much as reaches my eyes to find its place / makes all the nights rainy to me alone / until my dawn returns overflowing with roses.
(
1630 ?
)
Giovane piano, e semplicetto amante
Poi che fuggir me stesso in dubbio sono,
Madonna, a voi del mio cuor l’humil dono
Farò divoto; io certo a prove tante
5
L’hebbi fedele, intrepido, costante,
Di pensieri leggiadro, accorto, e buono;
Quando rugge il gran mondo, e scocca il tuono,
S’arma di se, e d’intero diamante,
Tanto del forse, e d’invidia sicuro,
10
Di timori, e speranze al popol use,
Quanto d’ingegno, e d’alto valor vago,
E di cetra sonora, e delle muse:
Sol troverete in tal parte men duro
Ove Amor mise l’insanabil ago.
Young, gentle, and candid lover that I am, / since to fly my self I am in doubt, / my lady, to you the humble gift of my heart / I shall render devotedly; I, assured by many trials, / have found it faithful, courageous, constant, [5] / in thoughts gracious, prudent, and good; / when the wide world roars and the thunder strikes, / it arms itself from itself, and adamantly from within, / safe to such a degree from the chance and envy, / from the fears and hopes of common men [10] / as its store of indeterminate talent and high courage / and of the sounding lyre and the Muses: / only will you discover it in like portion less unyielding / where Love has sent his incurable dart.
(
1630 ?
)
1
What needs my
Shakespear
for his honour’d Bones,
The labour of an age in piled Stones,
Or that his hallow’d reliques should be hid
Under a Star-ypointing
2
Pyramid?
5
Dear son of memory,
3
great heir of Fame,
What need’st thou such weak witnes of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thy self a live-long Monument.
4
For whilst to th’ shame of slow-endeavouring art,
10
Thy easie numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalu’d
5
Book
Those Delphick
6
lines with deep impression took,
Then thou our fancy of it self bereaving,
Dost make us Marble with too much conceaving;
7
15
And so Sepulcher’d in such pomp dost lie,
That Kings for such a Tomb would wish to die.
(
1630
)
1
first printed in the Second Folio of Shakespeare’s plays (1632).
2
The archaic prefix was correctly used only for the past participle.
3
Aside from his constancy in our memories, Shakespeare is made a brother of the Muses, the daughters of Mnemosyne.
4
Compare “I have built me a monument more lasting than bronze, / A pyramid higher than a kingly tomb” (Horace,
Odes
, III, xxx, 1-2).
5
priceless.
6
inspired by Apollo, patron of poetry, whose abode was Delphi.
7
Shakespeare’s readers are an everlasting monument to his greatness with his lines engraved on their hearts.
1
Heu quàm perpetuis erroribus acta fatiscit
Avia mens hominum, tenebrisque immersa profundis
Œdipodioniam volvit sub pectore nocteml
2
Quæ vesana suis metiri facta deorum
5
Audet, et incisas leges adamante perenni
Assimilare suis, nulloque solubile sæclo
Consilium fati perituris alligat horis.
Ergóne marcescet sulcantibus obsita rugis
Naturæ facies, et rerum publica mater
3
10
Omniparum contracta uterum sterilescet ab ævo?
Et se fassa senem malè certis passibus ibit
Sidereum tremebunda caput? num tetra vetustas
Annorumque æterna fames, squalorque situsque
Sidera vexabunt? an et insatiabile Tempus
15
Esuriet Cælum, rapietque in viscera patrem?
Heu, potuitne suas imprudens Jupiter arces
Hoc contra munisse nefas, et Temporis isto
Exemisse malo, gyrosque dedisse perennes?
Ergo erit ut quandoque sono dilapsa tremendo
20
Convexi tabulata ruant, atque obvius ictu
Stridat uterque polus, superâque ut Olympius aulâ
Decidat, horribilisque retectâ Gorgone Pallas.
4
Qualis in Ægæam proles Junonia
5
Lemnon
Deturbata sacro cecidit de limine cæli.
25
Tu quoque, Phœbe, tui casus imitabere nati
6
Præcipiti curru, subitáque ferere ruinâ
Pronus, et extinctâ fumabit lampade Nereus,
7
Et dabit attonito feralia sibila ponto.
Tunc etiam aërei divulsis sedibus Hæmi
8
30
Dissultabit apex, imoque allisa barathro
Terrebunt Stygium dejecta Ceraunia Ditem
In superos quibus usus erat, fraternaque bella.
At Pater omnipotens fundatis fortius astris
Consuluit rerum summæ, certoque peregit
35
Pondere fatorum lances, atque ordine summo
Singula perpetuum jussit servare tenorem.
Volvitur hinc lapsu mundi rota prima
9
diurno;
Raptat et ambitos sociâ vertigine cælos.
Tardior haud solito Saturnus, et acer ut olim
40
Fulmineùm rutilat cristatâ casside Mavors.
Floridus æternùm Phœbus juvenile coruscat,
Nec fovet effœtas loca per declivia terras
Devexo temone Deus; sed semper amicá
Luce potens eadem currit per signa rotarum.
45
Surgit
10
odoratis pariter formosus ab Indis
Æthereum pecus albenti qui cogit Olympo
Mane vocans, et serus agens in pascua cæli,
Temporis et gemino dispertit regna colore.
Fulget, obitque vices alterno Delia
11
cornu,
50
Cæruleumque ignem paribus complectitur ulnis.
Nec variant elementa fidem, solitóque fragore
Lurida perculsas jaculantur fulmina rupes.
Nec per inane furit leviori murmure Corus,
12
Stringit et armiferos æquali horrore Gelonos
14
55
Trux Aquilo,
13
spiratque hyemem, nimbosque volutat.
Utque solet, Siculi diverberat ima Pelori
Rex maris,
15
et raucâ circumstrepit æquora conchâ
Oceani Tubicen,
16
nec vastâ mole minorem
Ægæona
17
ferunt dorso Balearica cete.
60
Sed neque, Terra, tibi sæcli vigor ille vetusti
Priscus abest, servatque suum Narcissus
18
odorem;
Et puer ille suum tenet et puer ille decorem,
Phœbe tuusque et Cypri tuus,
19
nec ditior olim
Terra datum sceleri celavit montibus aurum
65
Conscia, vel sub aquis gemmas. Sic denique in ævum
Ibit cunctarum series justissima rerum,
Donec flamma orbem populabitur ultima, latè
Circumplexa polos, et vasti culmina cæli;
Ingentique rogo flagrabit machina mundi.
20
1
Alas how the wandering mind of man grows weak, driven / by persistent errors, and immersed in profound darkness / it breathes Oedipean night beneath his breast!
2
/ Unsound it dares measure the deeds of the gods / by its own, and to laws engraved on eternal adamant [5] / compare its own, and the forever immutable / plan of fate it binds to the passing hours. /