Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.
AppendixII. Unacknowledged and Uncollected Translations. A Florentine Song
I
I do not wish to have a sweetheart near me,
Nor would I call another’s heart my own,
Nor have a gallant lover to revere me.
For surely I will plight my faith to none,
Though many an amorous cit would jump to hear me
For I have heard that lovers prove deceivers,
When once they find that maidens are believers.
One whom I thought my charms had power to move,
Why then, I do confess, the whim might seize me,
To taste for once the porringer of love.
Alas! there is one pair of eyes that tease me;
And then that mouth!—he seems a star above,
He is so good, so gentle, and so kind,
And so unlike the sullen, clownish hind.
Nor if I e’er have known his cunning arts;
But true it is, there’s one I like so well,
That when he looks at me my bosom starts.
And, if we meet, my heart begins to swell;
And the green fields around, when he departs,
Seem like a nest from which the bird has flown;
Can this be love?—say—ye who love have known.