LINES TO MACIAS EL ENAMORADO

(from the "Laberinto")

by: Juan de Mena (1411-1456)

      E in this radiant circle looked so long
      That we found out Macías; in a bower
      Of cypress was he weeping still the hour
      That ended his dark life and love in wrong.
      Nearer I drew for sympathy was strong
      In me, when I perceived he was from Spain;
      And there I heard him sing the saddest strain
      That e'er was tuned in elegiac song.
      "Love crowned me with his myrtle crown; my name
      Will be pronounced by many, but, alas,
      When his pangs caused me bliss, not slighter woe
      The mournful suffering that consumed my frame!
      His sweet snares conquer the lorn mind they tame,
      But do not always then continue sweet;
      And since they cause me ruin so complete,
      Turn, lovers, turn, and disesteem his fame;
      Dangers so passionate be glad to miss;
      Learn to be gay; flee from sorrows touch;
      Learn to disserve him you have served so much,
      Your devoirs pay at any shrine but his:
      If the short joy that in his service is,
      Were but proportioned to the long, long pain,
      Neither would he that once has loved complain,
      Nor he that ne'er has loved despair of bliss.
      But even as some assassin or night-rover,
      Seeing his fellow wound upon the wheel,
      Awed by the agony resolves with zeal
      His life to 'mend, and character recover;
      But when the fearful spectacle is over,
      Reacts his crimes with easy unconcern;
      So my amours on my despair return,
      That I should die, as I have lived, a lover!"

--Translated by J.H. Wiffen

"Lines to Macías El Enamorado" is reprinted from Hispanic Anthology: Poems Translated from the Spanish by English and North American Poets. Ed. Thomas Walsh. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1920.

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