L’Olive augmentée/4

III. 'Famed Loire, who swell your little source'

L’Olive ~ IV written by Joachim Du Bellay translated by A. S. Kline

V. 'Now that Night her starry chariot plies,'

L’Olive - IV. ‘Me soit amour ou rude, ou favorable,’.

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IV

'Whether love is harsh to me or favourable'
 
Whether love is harsh to me or favourable,
Whether Fate sets me higher or lower,
All that I feel in my heart for love of her,
Till death, and beyond, will prove durable.
 
I am the rock of faith, not mutable
As the sea, or sky, or winds that blow,
And whether to me the seasons show
Themselves foul or fair, I am indomitable.
 
Sooner would diamond learn to soften
Of its own will or, carved with a burin
Of lead by some engraver, take new form,
 
Than, through fresh good or ill, my heart,
In which rests the true subject of my art,
Your great worth, its own self transform.