Poem of the Week: Joachim du Bellay
Posted By Brett Foster On November 22, 2013 @ 8:30 am In Poems of the Week | 1 Comment
L’Olive: sonnet 18
My tongue cannot resist disclosing all
I feel for you, when from you I’m away,
but suddenly, feeling you nearby, it says
nothing—-left dumbstruck and deaf, words stall.
Thus hope makes guarantees while duping me:
I am less there, the more I’m in your presence.
What eludes me pleases me immensely:
I desire that which I refuse to keep.
I am joyful by night and sad all day,
having in sleep what, waking, will not stay:
my good’s a falsehood, my evil ever true.
I brood for one who’s faultless, best commended.
Therefore, Love, if there’s charity in you,
make my life brief, or night make never-ending.
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Joachim du Bellay was a French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade.
Translation by Brett Foster.
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