Read "Che Fai? Che Pensi? Che Pur Dietro Guardi" by Francesco Petrarca online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
HE ENCOURAGES HIS SOUL TO LIFT ITSELF TO GOD, AND TO ABANDON THE / VANITIES OF EARTH.
What dost thou? think'st thou? wherefore bend thine eye / Back on the time that never shall return? / The raging fire, where once 'twas thine to burn, / Why with fresh fuel, wretched soul, supply? / Those thrilling tones, those glances of the sky, / Which one by one thy fond verse strove to adorn, / Are fled; and -- well thou knowest, poor forlorn! -- / To seek them here were bootless industry.
Then toil not bliss so fleeting to renew; / To chase a thought so fair, so faithless, cease: / Thou rather that unwavering good pursue, / Which guides to heaven; since nought below can please.
Fatal for us that beauty's torturing view, / Living or dead alike which desolates our peace.
WRANGHAM.