Translations of the Italian Poems III Canzone.
By John Milton
They mock my toil the nymphs and am'rous swains And whence this fond attempt to write, they cry, Love-songs in language that thou little know'st? How dar'st thou risque to sing these foreign strains? Say truly. Find'st not oft thy purpose cross'd, And that thy fairest flow'rs, Here, fade and die? Then with pretence of admiration high Thee other shores expect, and other tides, Rivers on whose grassy sides Her deathless laurel-leaf with which to bind Thy flowing locks, already Fame provides; Why then this burthen, better far declin'd? Speak, Canzone! for me. The Fair One said who guides My willing heart, and all my Fancy's flights, "This is the language in which Love delights."
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"They mock my toil the nymphs and am'rous swains..."
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