Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888.
The End of Earthly LoveFrancesco Redi (16261697)
Translated by Edmund Gosse
L
What is there left for me to give thee more?
Love, thou hast had thy will with me to-day,
I can but give thee what thou hadst before!
Oh! hungry Love, shall I devote my tears
To quench this never-tiring old desire?
Behold! the sum of all my joys and fears
Lies hidden behind thy quivering wings of fire!
What wilt thou more? Oh! wilt thou that I die?
Behold my breast before thee strained and bare!
Stab me to death, or wind my coils of hair
Around my throat and slay me where I lie;
Crush me or kill me, tyrannous God and fair,
But with thy kisses stifle my last cry!