Che giova dunque perché tutta spalme
La mia barchetta, poi che’n fra gli scogli
E ritenut’anchor da tai duo nodi?
Tù che da gli altri ch’in diversi modi
Legan’ il mondo in tutto mi disciogli,
Signor mio, che non togli
Hormai dal volto mio questa vergogna,
Ch’a guisa d’huom che sogna
Haver la mort’innanzi gli occhi parme,
E vorrei far difesa e non hò l’arme.
German translation
Was hilft es nun, dass fest in Eins gefüget
mein Nachen? Bleibt er doch in Klippen hangen,
gefesselt annoch von zwei solchen Schlingen.
Du, der du mich erlöst von andern Dingen,
die vielgestaltig sonst die Welt befangen,
warum von meinen Wangen
nimmst du, o Herr, nicht solches Jammers Zeichen?
Träumendem zu vergleichen,
seh‘ vor den Augen ich des Todes Speere;
gern kämpft‘ ichach! Und habe keine Wehre.
What boots it, trammel‘d by such adverse ties,
If still between the rocks must lie her course,
to trim my little bark to new emprize?
Ah! wilt thou never, Lord, who yet dost keep
Me safe and free from common chains which bind
In different modes mankind,
Deign also from my brow this shame to sweep?
For, as one sunk in sleep,
Methinks Death ever present to my sight,
Yet when I would resist, I have no arms to fight. Robert Guthrie MacGregor, Indian Leisure, London 1854