Christina Rossetti (क्रिस्टीना रोसेटी)

Go from me, summer friends, and tarry not,I am no summer friend, but wintry cold.

A silly sheep benighted from the fold,A sluggard with a thorn-choked garden plot.

Take counsel, sever from my lot your lot,Dwell in your pleasant places, hoard your gold.

Lest you with me should shiver on the wold,Athirst and hungering on a barren spot.

For I have hedged me with a thorny hedge,I live alone, I look to die alone.

Yet sometimes, when a wind sighs through the sedge,Ghosts of my buried years, and friends come back.

My heart goes sighing after swallows flown,On sometime summer's unreturning track.

My heart is like a singing bird,Whose nest is in a water'd shoot.

My heart is like an apple-tree,Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit.

My heart is like a rainbow shell,That paddles in a halcyon sea.

My heart is gladder than all these,Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a dais of silk and down,Hang it with vair and purple dyes.

Carve it in doves and pomegranates,And peacocks with a hundred eyes.

Work it in gold and silver grapes,In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys.

Because the birthday of my life,Is come, my love is come to me.

1,Lo dм che han detto a' dolci amici addio. - Dante.

Amor, con quanto sforzo oggi mi vinci! - Petrarca,Come back to me, who wait and watch for you:--.

Or come not yet, for it is over then,And long it is before you come again.

So far between my pleasures are and few,While, when you come not, what I do I do.

Thinking "Now when he comes," my sweetest when:",For one man is my world of all the men.

This wide world holds; O love, my world is you,Howbeit, to meet you grows almost a pang.

Because the pang of parting comes so soon,My hope hangs waning, waxing, like a moon.

Between the heavenly days on which we meet,Ah me, but where are now the songs I sang.

When life was sweet because you call'd them sweet?,2.

Era giа 1'ora che volge il desio. - Dante,Ricorro al tempo ch' io vi vidi prima. - Petrarca.

I wish I could remember that first day,First hour, first moment of your meeting me.

If bright or dim the season, it might be,Summer or winter for aught I can say.

So unrecorded did it slip away,So blind was I to see and to foresee.

So dull to mark the budding of my tree,That would not blossom yet for many a May.

If only I could recollect it, such,A day of days! I let it come and go.

As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow,It seem'd to mean so little, meant so much.

If only now I could recall that touch,First touch of hand in hand--Did one but know!.

3,O ombre vane, fuor che ne l'aspetto! - Dante.

Immaginata guida la conduce. - Petrarca,I dream of you to wake: would that I might.

Dream of you and not wake but slumber on,Nor find with dreams the dear companion gone.

As summer ended summer birds take flight,In happy dreams I hold you full in sight.

I blush again who waking look so wan,Brighter than sunniest day that ever shone.

In happy dreams your smile makes day of night,Thus only in a dream we are at one.

Thus only in a dream we give and take,The faith that maketh rich who take or give.

If thus to sleep is sweeter than to wake,To die were surely sweeter than to live.

Though there be nothing new beneath the sun,4.

Poca favilla gran fliamma seconda. - Dante,Ogni altra cosa, ogni pensier va fore.

E sol ivi con voi rimansi amore. - Petrarca,I lov'd you first: but afterwards your love.

Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song,As drown'd the friendly cooings of my dove.

Which owes the other most? my love was long,And yours one moment seem'd to wax more strong.

I lov'd and guess'd at you, you construed me--,And lov'd me for what might or might not be.

Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong,For verily love knows not "mine" or "thine;".

With separate "I" and "thou" free love has done,For one is both and both are one in love.

Rich love knows nought of "thine that is not mine;",Both have the strength and both the length thereof.

Both of us, of the love which makes us one,5.

Amor che a nullo amato amar perdona. - Dante,Amor m'addusse in sм gioiosa spene. - Petrarca.

O my heart's heart, and you who are to me,More than myself myself, God be with you.

Keep you in strong obedience leal and true,To Him whose noble service setteth free.

Give you all good we see or can foresee,Make your joys many and your sorrows few.

Bless you in what you bear and what you do,Yea, perfect you as He would have you be.

So much for you; but what for me, dear friend?,To love you without stint and all I can.

Today, tomorrow, world without an end,To love you much and yet to love you more.

As Jordan at his flood sweeps either shore,Since woman is the helpmeet made for man.

6,Or puoi la quantitate.

Comprender de l'amor che a te mi scalda. - Dante,Non vo' che da tal nodo mi scioglia. - Petrarca.

Trust me, I have not earn'd your dear rebuke,I love, as you would have me, God the most.

Would lose not Him, but you, must one be lost,Nor with Lot's wife cast back a faithless look.

Unready to forego what I forsook,This say I, having counted up the cost.

This, though I be the feeblest of God's host,The sorriest sheep Christ shepherds with His crook.

Yet while I love my God the most, I deem,That I can never love you overmuch.

I love Him more, so let me love you too,Yea, as I apprehend it, love is such.

I cannot love you if I love not Him,I cannot love Him if I love not you.

7,Qui primavera sempre ed ogni frutto. - Dante.

Ragionando con meco ed io con lui. - Petrarca,"Love me, for I love you"--and answer me.

"Love me, for I love you"--so shall we stand,As happy equals in the flowering land.

Of love, that knows not a dividing sea,Love builds the house on rock and not on sand.

Love laughs what while the winds rave desperately,And who hath found love's citadel unmann'd?.

And who hath held in bonds love's liberty?,My heart's a coward though my words are brave.

We meet so seldom, yet we surely part,So often; there's a problem for your art!.

Still I find comfort in his Book, who saith,Though jealousy be cruel as the grave.

And death be strong, yet love is strong as death,8.

Come dicesse a Dio: D'altro non calme. - Dante,Spero trovar pietа non che perdono. - Petrarca.

"I, if I perish, perish"--Esther spake,And bride of life or death she made her fair.

In all the lustre of her perfum'd hair,And smiles that kindle longing but to slake.

She put on pomp of loveliness, to take,Her husband through his eyes at unaware.

She spread abroad her beauty for a snare,Harmless as doves and subtle as a snake.

She trapp'd him with one mesh of silken hair,She vanquish'd him by wisdom of her wit.

And built her people's house that it should stand:--,If I might take my life so in my hand.

And for my love to Love put up my prayer,And for love's sake by Love be granted it!.

9,O dignitosa coscienza e netta! - Dante.

Spirto piщ acceso di virtuti ardenti. - Petrarca,Thinking of you, and all that was, and all.

That might have been and now can never be,I feel your honour'd excellence, and see.

Myself unworthy of the happier call,For woe is me who walk so apt to fall.

So apt to shrink afraid, so apt to flee,Apt to lie down and die (ah, woe is me!).

Faithless and hopeless turning to the wall,And yet not hopeless quite nor faithless quite.

Because not loveless; love may toil all night,But take at morning; wrestle till the break.

Of day, but then wield power with God and man:--,So take I heart of grace as best I can.

Ready to spend and be spent for your sake,10.

Con miglior corso e con migliore stella. - Dante,La vita fugge e non s'arresta un' ora. - Petrarca.

Time flies, hope flags, life plies a wearied wing,Death following hard on life gains ground apace.

Faith runs with each and rears an eager face,Outruns the rest, makes light of everything.

Spurns earth, and still finds breath to pray and sing,While love ahead of all uplifts his praise.

Still asks for grace and still gives thanks for grace,Content with all day brings and night will bring.

Life wanes; and when love folds his wings above,Tired hope, and less we feel his conscious pulse.

Let us go fall asleep, dear friend, in peace,A little while, and age and sorrow cease.

A little while, and life reborn annuls,Loss and decay and death, and all is love.