To Luna (1768)

 

Sister of Creation's light,

Image of tenderness in sorrow,

Silver mists thy radiance borrow

As they swim across thy sight.

At thy footfall through the sky

In their dusky hollows waken

Souls that sadly died forsaken,

Birds that shun the day, and I.

 

Looking downward far and wide

Hidden things thou dost discover,

Luna! help a pining lover,

Lift me upward to thy side,

And with peace in pleasure show

This errant knight his maiden sleeping,

Through the glassy lattice peeping

Let him see her there below.

 

 

Translated by W.E. Aytoun-Theodore Martin/Christopher Middleton