Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.
TranslationsFrom the Italian. Seven Sonnets and a Canzone. VIII. Canzone
A
The vanished years, alas, I do not find
Among them all one day that was my own!
Fallacious hopes, desires of the unknown,
Lamenting, loving, burning, and in tears,
(For human passions all have stirred my mind,)
Have held me, now I feel and know, confined
Both from the true and good still far away.
I perish day by day;
The sunshine fails, the shadows grow more dreary,
And I am near to fall, infirm and weary.