Friday, March 2, 2007

Courtly Love


(dedicated to Carlo Gesualdo)

Farewell, adieu, my distant Love…
Time’s fool is cruel, grim and rough.
Oh, bitter tears I dropped, my dear
Sweet withered rose of yesteryear.

Adieu, my dear. Blessed be Thy skull!
Life is so shabby, short and dull.
And often do I kneel and pray
To Thee, pure pearl of yesterday.

Farewell, my Love, my Lady brave.
Accept Thy fate, Thy quiet grave.
I lead a quaint, a saintly life.
I threw away that bloody knife.



by Rolf-Peter Wille


"time's fool": an allegory used by Shakespeare in his Sonnet 116; something like the "grim reaper"

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