M USEDDES

Ah! that once again my heart with blood is filled, like beaker, high;
At the feast of parting from my love I fell, and prostrate lie;
O'er this wildered heart the gloom of frenzy, conquering, doth fly;
In the valley of distraction ne'er a guide can I descry.
Heedless mistress! loveless Fortune! ever-shifting, restless sky!
Sorrows many! friends not any! strong-starred foeman! feeble I!

In the land of exile loomed dark on one side the night of woe,
Nowhere o'er me did the lustrous moon of beauty's heaven glow;
Yonder glared the Two Infortunes, sank my helping planet low;
Here did fortune, there did gladness, parting from me, distant go.
Heedless mistress! loveless Fortune! ever-shifting, restless sky!
Sorrows many! friends not any! strong-starred foeman! feeble I!

Strange is't if the nightingale, my heart, in thousand notes doth wail?
Fate to part it from the rosebud, the beloved, did prevail;
Whilst I'm on the thorn of anguish, rivals with my love regale:
Why recite my woes, O comrades? space were none to tell their tale!
Heedless mistress! loveless Fortune! ever shifting, restless sky!
Sorrows many! friends not any! strong-starred foeman! feeble I!

E'en a moment at the feast of woes from tears can I refrain?
How shall not the wine, my tears, down rolling, all my vestment stain?
Can it be with e'en one breath I should not like the reed complain?
Sad, confused, like end of banquet, why then should not I remain?
Heedless mistress! loveless Fortune! ever-shifting, restless sky!
Sorrows many! friends not any! strong-starred foeman! feeble I!

Yonder Princess, though I served her, pitiless drave me away,
Banished me far from her city, sent me from her court's array:
When I parted from her tresses, black the world before me lay;
Helpless 'midst the darkness did I, like unto At a'i , stray.
Heedless mistress! loveless Fortune! ever-shifting, restless sky!
Sorrows many! friends not any! strong-starred foeman! feeble I!