The other two, slight air and purging fire,
Are both with thee, wherever I abide;
The first my thought, the other my desire,
These present-absent with swift motion slide.
For when these quicker elements are gone
In tender embassy of love to thee,
My life, being made of four, with two alone
Sinks down to death, oppress'd with melancholy;
Until life's composition be recured
By those swift messengers return'd from thee,
Who even but now come back again, assured
Of thy fair health, recounting it to me:
This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,
I send them back again and straight grow sad.
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
How to divide the conquest of thy sight;
Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar,
My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
A closet never pierced with crystal eyes,
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him thy fair appearance lies.
To 'cide this title is impanneled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart;
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eye's moiety and the dear heart's part:
As thus; mine eye's due is thy outward part, And my heart's right thy inward love of heart.
Altera bina in me levis aura et purior aether,
Te prope sunt, quoquo me rapit hora loci.
Hic animam signat, spes illa, et adesse videntur
Absentes, tanta mobilitate meant.
Nam quotiens ad te par hoc animosius ivit
Significaturum quae pia mandat amor,
Vita mea, ex istis retinens elementa quaternis
Bina modo, ad mortem paene redacta dolet.
Dum cito legatis a te revolantibus illis
Vita recomposita est, ut fuit ante, mihi.
Nam citius dicto revolarunt, deque salute
Certa tua docti me quoque certa docent.
Laetor in auditis, nec longum gratia durat,
Namque remitto ambos et redit ille dolor.
In me lis oculo cum pectore saevit, in utro
Copia picturae debeat esse tuae.
Volt oculus nam pectus ab omni iure videndi
Claudere; volt oculo demere pectus idem.
Te positum in sese pectus docet esse, nec unquam
Lucentes oculos hunc penetrasse locum.
Alter it infitias ea dici vera, tuamque
Effigiem in sese semper inesse docet.
Arbitrium in litis coguntur conscia veri
Sensa, cliens cordis contiguumque genus.
Lite perorata decernunt illa decere
Quas oculum partes, quas mage pectus amans: Nempe ut in externis oculus regat, intima vero Qua pietas habitet pectoris esse volunt.
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
And each doth good turns now unto the other:
When that mine eye is famish'd for a look,
Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother,
With my love's picture then my eye doth feast
And to the painted banquet bids my heart;
Another time mine eye is my heart's guest
And in his thoughts of love doth share a part:
So, either by thy picture or my love,
Thyself away art present still with me
For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them and they with thee;
Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
Awakes my heart to heart's and eye's delight.
How careful was I, when I took my way,
Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,
That to my use it might unused stay
From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust!
But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief,
Thou, best of dearest and mine only care,
Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.
Thee have I not lock'd up in any chest,
Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art,
Within the gentle closure of my breast,
From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part;
And even thence thou wilt be stol'n, I fear,
For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.
Sic oculus panxit cum pectore foedus, et ambo
Obsequia alternant officiique vices.
Sic quotiens oculus desiderat ora videre
Vera tua, et lacrima pectus inundat amor,
Protinus ille famem restinguit imagine picta,
Ac iubet ad falsas pectus adesse dapes.
Vtitur hospitio tum pectoris, eius amori,
Eius imaginibus se sociare libet.
Sic sive a tabula, seu cordis imagine factum
Credimus, hinc absens tu mihi semper
ades.
Nam mea sensa extra nullus tibi, care, recessus
Linquitur, adsum illis, semper et illa tibi.
Sensaque paullisper si languent, pectus in omnes
Delicias oculo visa tabella ciet.
Quo studio excedens abdebam frivola rerum
Omnia post firmas quantulacunque seras,
Integra ut illa meos asservarentur in usus,
Fidaque rimantem falleret arca manum!
Tu mihi, gemma omnis prae quo sordere videtur,
Solamen solitum tu mihi, iamque dolor,
Vnus amicorum carissimus, unaque cura,
Desereris, cuivis praeda relicta malo.
Te loculis condo in nullis, nisi septa tenere
Mollia te possint pectoris ipsa mei;
Qua quotiens non es, fingo te credulus esse,
Ac venias liber, liber et inde migres.
Ac tamen ex illo ne tu rapiare verendum est;
Talibus in spoliis non bene firma fides.
Against that time, if ever that time come,
When I shall see thee frown on my defects,
When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,
Call'd to that audit by advised respects;
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass,
And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye,
When love, converted from the thing it was,
Shall reasons find of settled gravity;
Against that time do I ensconce me here
Within the knowledge of mine own desert,
And this my hand against myself uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part:
To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,
Since why to love I can allege no cause.
How heavy do I journey on the way,
When what I seek, my weary travel's end,
Doth teach that ease and that repose to say
Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend!'
The beast that bears me, tired with my woe,
Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me,
As if by some instinct the wretch did know
His rider loved not speed, being made from thee:
The bloody spur cannot provoke him on
That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide;
Which heavily he answers with a groan,
More sharp to me than spurring to his side;
For that same groan doth put this in my mind;
My grief lies onward and my joy behind.
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