Mellin de Saint-Gelais (c. 1491–1558)

Translated by Austin Dobson

WHEN from afar these mountain tops I view,

I do but mete mine own distress thereby:

High is their head, and my desire is high;

Firm is their foot, my faith is certain too.

E’en as the winds about their summits blue,

From me too breaks betimes the wistful sigh;

And as from them the brooks and streamlets hie,

So from mine eyes the tears run down anew.

A thousand flocks upon them feed and stray;

As many loves within me see the day,

And all my heart for pasture ground divide.

No fruit have they, my lot as fruitless is;

And ’twixt us now nought diverse is but this—

In them the snows, in me the fires abide.