Les Regrets/3

II, ' ll not trawl the Greek seas with my nets, '

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

IV. ' Don’t be astonished, you, who are half my heart,'

Les Regrets - III. ‘Las, ou est maintenant ce mespris de fortune?’.

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III

"Alas, where now is that contempt for fate?"
 
Alas, where now is that contempt for fate?
Where is that heart fit for adversity,
That honest craving for immortality,
And that fine flame that scorned the second rate?

Where are those sweet joys of darkness late
The Muses gave me, when at liberty,
On some far shore’s sweet verdant tapestry,
I’d lead their dance, and moonlight celebrate?

Destiny and fate’s my mistress now,
My heart, her master, to which she would bow,
Is slave to a thousand dull regrets instead.
 
I give no thought now to posterity,
That divine ardour, is long gone from me,
And the Muses, like strangers, now are fled.