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Home  »  Francisco de Aldana (1537?–1578)

Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888.

The Native Land

Francisco de Aldana (1537?–1578)

Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

CLEAR fount of light! my native land on high

Bright with a glory that shall never fade!

Mansion of truth! without a veil or shade,

Thy holy quiet meets the spirit’s eye.

There dwells the soul in its ethereal essence,

Gasping no longer for life’s feeble breath;

But sentinelled in heaven, its glorious presence

With pitying eye beholds, yet fears not, death.

Belovëd country! banished from thy shore,

A stranger in this prison-house of clay,

The exiled spirit weeps and sighs for thee!

Heavenward the bright perfections I adore

Direct, and the sure promise cheers the way,

That, whither love aspires, there shall my dwelling be.