Jacopo Sannazzaro, Epigrams 2.56
(To His Own Soul)
“You burned, and the flame consumed your wretched marrow –
your desiccated bones dissolved into tenuous ash.
You wept, and your eyes poured forth a perennial dew;
Sebeto himself grew from your tears.
Why this unbridled desire for burning and crying?
O, my soul, you should learn to fear your funeral,
and not to go on seeking over and over for your destruction, your death.
Be happy that you have made it past the Sirens’ rocks.”
Arsisti; et miseras consumsit flamma medullas;
Aridaque in cineres ossa abïere leves:
Flevisti; roremque oculi fudere perennem;
Sebethus lacrimis crevit et ipse tuis:
Ardendi, fledique igitur quae tanta cupido est?
O anime, exsequias disce timere tuas;
Neve iterum tua damna, iterum tua funera quaeras:
Sirenum scopulos praeteriisse juvet.
