Death & Dying
'Twixt Love and Death
Translated by Curtis Hidden Page (1903) · From Songs and Sonnets of Pierre de Ronsard (1903)
I sang these songs, by Helen's love made blind,
That fated month that oped my Prince's grave!
Great as his sceptre was, it could not save
CHARLES from the debt we owe to human kind.
Death stood on one side. Lord of heart and mind,
Love ruled me from the other side, and drave
Such torment through my veins, no thought I gave
Even to my King — in my own pain confined.
Now in my heart two different griefs make one:
My Lady's coldness, and the shortened years
Of him I worshipped for his noble fame.
She living and he dead bid tears to run —
He asketh weeping, she must have my tears.
For Love and Death are one thing and the same.
Cite this poem
MLA
Ronsard, Pierre de. “'Twixt Love and Death.” Translated by Curtis Hidden Page. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/ronsard/53/.
Chicago
Ronsard, Pierre de. “'Twixt Love and Death.” Translated by Curtis Hidden Page. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/ronsard/53/.
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