Les Regrets

Les Regrets written by Joachim Du Bellay

Translated from Les Regrets.

Translated by A. S. Kline

1. I’ll not delve to the heart of nature
2. I’ll not trawl the Greek seas with my nets
3. Alas, where now is that contempt for fate?
4. Don’t be astonished, you, who are half my heart
5. It’s not the Tuscan river with its proud shore.
6. After long wandering on the darkened plain
7. Happy, the man who finds sweet journey’s end
8. Oh, happy is he who can pass his days.
9. I love liberty, and I languish in service
10. Let’s live, let’s live, Gordes, and ignore.
11. The sacred mysteries of holy Roman.
12. I write not of love, not feeling amorous
13. If I climb to the Palace, I find only pride
14. Duthier: would you know what this Rome is?
15. How is it, Mauny, that the more one tries.
16. Who’ll search out Odysseus’ root for me?
17. The hair frizzed, a thousand curls in place
18. What shall we say, Melin, of this court
19. It’s the Carnival, let each do as he may
20. As Aeneas did, I found myself likewise
21. The sea receives the rivers of the world,
22. As well as in our tongue we can convey
23. They grant the wise scholar a degree.
24. In the hell of my body, my chained spirit
25. If virtue, that’s born from immortal nature
26. He who comes closest to divinity