TO HIMSELF.

Now shalt thou rest for aye,

My weary heart. The final error dies

Wherewith I nourished my divinest dreams.

'Tis gone. I feel in me for sweet delusions

Not merely hope, but even desire, is dead.

Rest for all time. Enough

Hath been thine agitation. There is nought

So precious, thou shouldst seek it; and the earth

Deserveth not a sigh. But weary bitterness

Is life, nought else, and ashes is the world.

Be now at peace. Despair

For the last time. Unto our race did Fate

Give nought, save death. Now hold in scorn and hate

Thyself and Nature and the power unknown,

That reigns supreme unto the grief of all,

And the vast vanity of this terrestrial ball.

The poems of Leopardi · 第 34 / 44 题