Les Regrets/13

XII. 'I write not of love, not feeling amorous '

Les Regrets ~ XIII written by Joachim Du Bellay translated by A. S. Kline

XIV. 'Duthier: would you know what this Rome is?'

Les Regrets - XIII. ‘Si je monte au Palais, je n’y trouve qu’orgueil’.

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XIII

"If I climb to the Palace, I find only pride,"
 
If I climb to the Palace, I find only pride,
Vice disguised, nothing but ceremony,
The noise of tambourines, strange harmony,
And red robes flowing in a crimson tide:
 
If I go down to the bank, I’m well supplied
With novelty, new faces, infinite usury,
Rich exiled Florentines, are there, in plenty,
And the poor Siennese, to grief allied:
 
If I wander, somewhere I’m bound to pass
The hordes of Venus, in lascivious mass,
Flaunting a thousand amorous charms the while:
 
If from new Rome I resolve to cross over
And enter the old Rome, there I discover
Only dead monuments, a vast stony pile.