Francesco Redi (1626–1697)

Translated by Edmund Gosse

OH! ye who follow Virtue, go not there!

Those meadows are the flowery ways of Love,

And he who there as Lord and King doth move

Is ever on the watch to trap and snare

The incautious hearts of all the young and fair,

And if those sunny perilous ways ye prove,

Your soul will flutter like a cagëd dove;

Oh! pause and taste not that perfumëd air!

Those shy white-breasted girls who smile and stand

With flower-bound hair, and singing, hand in hand,

Among the roses, will lay wait for you,

And clip your wings, and never let you through,

But shut your soul up in a thirsty land,

And Love will come with them and mock you too.