ove my
head. And as the variable and uncertain air comes freighted with
clover-scent from yonder field, so floats through these long centuries,
a breath of fragrance, the memory of Laura.

SONNET 129.

"_Lieti fiori e felici._"

O joyous, blossoming, ever-blessed flowers!
'Mid which my queen her gracious footstep sets;
O plain, that keep'st her words for amulets
And hold'st her memory in thy leafy bowers!
O trees, with earliest green of spring-time hours,
And spring-time's pale and tender violets!
O grove so dark, the proud sun only lets
His blithe rays gild the outskirts of your towers!
O pleasant country-side! O purest stream,
That mirrorest her sweet face, her eyes so clear,
And of their living light can catch the beam!
I envy you her haunts so close and dear.
There is no rock so senseless but I deem
It burns with passion that to mine is near.

Goethe compared translators to carriers, who convey good wine to market,
though it gets unaccountably watered by the way. The more one praises a
poem, the more absurd becomes one's position, perhaps, in trying to
translate it. If it is so perfect,--is the natural inquiry,--why not let
it alone? It is a doubtful blessing to the human race, that the instinct
of translation still prevails, stronger than reason; and after one has
once yielded to it, then each untranslated favorite is like the trees
round a backwoodsman's clearing, each of which stands, a silent
defiance, until he has cut it down. Let us try the axe again. This is to
Laura singing.

SONNET 134.

"_Quando Amor i begli occhi a terra, inclina._"

When Love doth those sweet eyes to earth incline,
And weaves those wandering notes into a sigh
Soft as his touch, and leads a minstrelsy
Clear-voiced and pure, angelic and divine,
He makes sweet havoc in this heart of mine,
And to my thoughts brings transformation high,
So that I say, "My time has come to die,
If fate so blest a death for me design."
But to my soul thus steeped in joy the sound
Brings such a wish to keep that present heaven,
It holds my spirit back to earth as well.
And thus I live; and thus is loosed and wound
The thread of life which unto me was given
By this sole Siren who with us doth dwell.

As I look across the bay, there is seen resting over all the hills, and
even upon every distant sail, an enchanted ve