Carsilaso de la Vega

SONG III

.

Surrounded by the gentle sound

of clear water in motion,

near the Danube, no island could exist

that might be a spot chosen where

anyone as I am now, could rest;

where eternally spring

appears in its verdure

strewn with flowers;

where nightingales

renew either pleasure or sadness

with their suave plaints,

and never, day or night, desist from them.

.

Here was I placed,

or, to speak more truly,

imprisoned, forced and alone in a foreign land;

they can well do this

to one who can suffer it

and to one, to himself, condemns himself.