EPITAPHS
V
EPITAPHS
TRUE is it that Ambrosio Salinero With an untoward fate was long involved In odious litigation; and full long, Fate harder still! had he to endure assaults Of racking malady. And true it is That not the less a frank courageous heart And buoyant spirit triumphed over pain; And he was strong to follow in the steps Of the fair Muses. Not a covert path Leads to the dear Parnassian forest’s shade, 10 That might from him be hidden; not a track Mounts to pellucid Hippocrene, but he Had traced its windings.–This Savona knows, Yet no sepulchral honours to her Son She paid, for in our age the heart is ruled Only by gold. And now a simple stone Inscribed with this memorial here is raised By his bereft, his lonely, Chiabrera. Think not, O Passenger! who read’st the lines, That an exceeding love hath dazzled me; 20 No–he was One whose memory ought to spread Where’er Permessus bears an honoured name, And live as long as its pure stream shall flow.