C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

To the Princess Leonora When Forbidden by Her Physicians to Sing

Ahi! ben è reo destin, che invidia e toglie

Translation of Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen

OH! ’tis a merciless decree,

That to the envied world denies

The sound of that sweet voice which we

So much admire, so dearly prize!

The noble thought and dulcet lay,

Breathing of passions so refined

By Honor’s breath, would drive away

Sharp sorrow from the gloomiest mind.

Yet ’tis enough for our deserts,

That eyes and smiles so calm and coy

Diffuse through our enchanted hearts

A holy and celestial joy.

There would be no more blessed place

Than this, our spirits to rejoice,

If, as we view thy heavenly face,

We also heard thy heavenly voice!