Quivi qual foste gia, non qual sarète.
Con diletto mirando, in onta agli anni
Vostre belle sembianze ancor vedrete.
Scorn not, dear maid, this fond but faithful lay,
That pictures, on no perishable page,
Thy beauties, rescued from the spoils of age,
To live and blossom with thy poet's bay:
For when remorseless Time brings on decay,
When the loath'd mirror shall no more engage
Thy smiles, distorted into grief and rage,
Alas! to think that youth must pass away--
Then in these lines contented shall thou trace,
As in a lovelier glass, thy lasting charms,
Not as they shall be, but as now they grace,
Fresh in the bud of youth, these circling arms.
[1] The Marchese Scipione Maffèi was a native of Verona, contemporary
with Gio. Baptista Felice Zappi, Vincenzio di Filicaja, and other
Italian poets, who associated themselves together in an academy,
which they entitled Arcadia. The pastoral name conferred upon
the Marquess was Orilto Barentatico.
_Vide Rime degli Arcadi, Venice_, MDCCLXXIX.
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