TRANSLATED FROM CHIABRERA.
[Those from Chiabrera were chiefly translated when Mr Coleridge was writing his “ Friend,” in which periodical my “Essay on Epitaphs,” written about that time, was first published. For further notice of Chiabrera, in connection with his Epitaphs, see “Musings at Aquapendento."]
It is better to print all the Epitaphs from Chiabrera together, than to spread them out over the years when they were first published, since it is impossible to say in what year those written subsequently to 1810 were composed.-ED.
WEEP not, beloved Friends ! nor let the air
For me with sighs be troubled. Not from life
Have I been taken ; this is genuine life
And this alone—the life which now I live
In peace eternal; where desire and joy
Together move in fellowship without end.
Francesco Ceni willed that, after death,
His tombstone thus should speak for him.
And surely
Small cause there is for that fond wish of ours
Long to continue in this world; a world
That keeps not faith, nor yet can point a hope
To good, whereof itself is destitute.
Pub. 1815.
PERHAPS some needful service of the State
Drew Titus from the depths of studious bowers,
Francesco Ceni after death enjoined
That thus his tomb should speak for him.
And doomed him to contend in faithless courts,
Where gold determines between right and wrong.
Yet did at length his loyalty of heart,
And his pure native genius, lead him back
To wait upon the bright and gracious Muses,
Whom he had early loved. And not in vain
Such course he held! Bologna's learned schools
Were gladdened by the Sage's voice, and hung
With fondness on those sweet Nestorian strains.
There pleasure crowned his days; and all his thoughts
A roseate fragrance breathed.*-O human life,
That never art secure from dolorous change!
Behold a high injunction suddenly
a
To Arno's side hath brought him, and he charmed
A Tuscan audience : but full soon was called
To the perpetual silence of the grave.
Mourn, Italy, the loss of him who stood
A Champion stedfast and invincible,
To quell the rage of literary War!
0 THOU who movest onward with a mind Intent upon thy way, pause, though in haste ! 'Twill be no fruitless moment.
I was born Within Savona's walls, of gentle blood.
To Arno's side conducts him,
* Ivi vivea giocondo ei suoi pensieri
Erano tutti rose. The Translator had not skill to come nearer to his original. 1815.
On Tiber's banks my youth was dedicate
To sacred studies; and the Roman Shepherd
Gave to my charge Urbino's numerous flock.
Well did I watch, much laboured, nor had power
To escape from many and strange indignities;
Was smitten by the great ones of the world,
But did not fall; for Virtue braves all shocks,
Upon herself resting immovably.
Me did a kindlier fortune then invite
To serve the glorious Henry, King of France,
And in his hands I saw a high reward
Stretched out for my acceptance,—but Death came.
Now, Reader, learn from this my fate, how false,
How treacherous to her promise, is the world;
And trust in God—to whose eternal doom
Must bend the sceptred Potentates of earth.
THERE never breathed a man who, when his life
Was closing, might not of that life relate
Toils long and hard.—The warrior will report
Of wounds, and bright swords flashing in the field,
And blast of trumpets. He who hath been doomed
To bow his forehead in the courts of kings
Will tell of fraud and never-ceasing hate,
Envy and heart-inquietude, derived
From intricate cabals of treacherous friends.
I, who on shipboard lived from earliest youth,
Could represent the countenance horrible
Of the vexed waters, and the indignant rage
Of Auster and Boötes. Fifty years 1
Over the well-steered galleys did I rule :
From huge Pelorus to the Atlantic pillars,
Rises no mountain to mine eyes unknown;
And the broad gulfs I traversed oft and oft :
Of every cloud which in the heavens might stir
I knew the force; and hence the rough sea's pride
Availed not to my Vessel's overthrow.
What noble pomp and frequent have not I
On regal decks beheld ! yet in the end
I learned that one poor moment can suffice 2
To equalise the lofty and the low.
We sail the sea of lifea Calm One finds, ,
And One a Tempest—and, the voyage o'er,
Death is the quiet haven of us all.
If more of my condition ye would know,
Savona was my birth-place, and I sprang
Of noble parents : seventy years and three 3
Lived I—then yielded to a slow disease.
TRUE is it that Ambrosio Salinero
With an untoward fate was long involved
In odious litigation; and full long,
Fate harder still ! had he to endure assaults
Of racking malady. And true it is
That not the less a frank courazeous heart
Ard buoyant spirit triumphed over pain ;
And be was strong to follow in the sters
Of the fair uses. Not a covert path
Leats to the dear Parnassian forest's shade,
Trat might from him be hidden; not a track
Jourts to pellucid Hippocrene, but he
Had traced its winlis-Tes Sarona knows,
Yet no seplehral honors to her Son
Se pari, for in our age the heart is rulei
Oy by se And now a simple stone
Inscrite with this memorial here is raised
By his berett, his lonely, Chiabrera.
Tork not, O Passenger! who read'st the lines,
Tra: an exceeling love hath dazzled me;
Nomhe was One whose memory ought to spread
Where'er Permessus bears an honoured name,
And live as long as its pure stream shall fow.
Pub 1915. DESTINED to war from very infancy Was I, Roberto Dati, and I took In Maia the white symbol of the Cross: Yor in He's vigorous season did I shun Hazard or toil; among the sands was seen Of Libya; and not seldom, on the banks Of wide Hungarian Danube, 'twas my lot To hear the sanguinary trumpet sounded So lived I, and repined not at such fate: This only grieves me, for it seems a wrong, That stripped of arms I to my end am brought On the soft down of my paternal home.
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