Explore "Dicemi Spesso Il Mio Fidato Speglio" by Francesco Petrarca on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
HE AWAKES TO A CONVICTION OF THE NEAR APPROACH OF DEATH.
My faithful mirror oft to me has told -- / My weary spirit and my shrivell'd skin / My failing powers to prove it all begin -- / "Deceive thyself no longer, thou art old. " / Man is in all by Nature best controll'd, / And if with her we struggle, time creeps in; / At the sad truth, on fire as waters win, / A long and heavy sleep is off me roll'd; / And I see clearly our vain life depart, / That more than once our being cannot be: / Her voice sounds ever in my inmost heart.