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Jan Andrzej Morsztyn
Jan Andrzej Morsztyn - To a Corpse (Sonnet)
TO A CORPSE
(SONNET)
You lie struck dead, I am struck dead the same,
You with the death bolt, I the love arrow,
You have no blood, I have no ruddy glow,
You have plain candles, I a hidden flame,
Your face is covered with a mourning shroud,
In dreadful darkness my senses are trapped,
Your hands are bound, while my mind has been strapped,
Deprived of freedom, in irons throughout.
But you are silent, while my tongue whimpers,
You feel nothing, I can't deep pain forgo,
You are like ice, I in hellish sunglow.
With time your body into dust scatters,
And yet I cannot scatter in ash pyre,
Eternal element of my own fire.
Translated by Michael J. Mikoś