Vincenzo da Filicaja (1642–1707)

Translated by James Glassford, of Dougalston
“I am stricken, and I am the blow.”

NO, not to thee nor to thy hate I owe,

Nor ever did or ever shall, my shame;

O fortune, I acquit thee of the blow,

Not thy injustice or thy spite I blame.

I am both mark and shaft, and drew the bow;

I forged the bolt, and lighted up the flame;

And the black cloud whose peal has rattled so,

From the dark smoke of my offences came:

Foul vapour from an impure heart that flows,

And, issuing thence in exhalations thin,

Recoils in thunder there from whence it rose.

Thus my reproach and grief turn all within,

My guilt against myself the javelin throws,

My sin the lash with which I lash my sin.