From the Italian. Seven Sonnets and a Canzone. V. To Vittoria Colonna

LADY, how can it chance—yet this we see

In long experience—that will longer last

A living image carved from quarries vast

Than its own maker, who dies presently?

Cause yieldeth to effect if this so be,

And even Nature is by Art surpassed;

This know I, who to Art have given the past,

But see that Time is breaking faith with me.

Perhaps on both of us long life can I

Either in color or in stone bestow,

By now portraying each in look and mien;

So that a thousand years after we die,

How fair thou wast, and I how full of woe,

And wherefore I so loved thee, may be seen.