Page:Translations from Camoens; and Other Poets.pdf/20



HERE blooms a plant, whose gaze, from hour to hour, Still to the sun with fond devotion turns, Wakes, when Creation hails his dawning power, And most expands, when most her idol burns:

But when he seeks the bosom of the deep, His faithful plant's reflected charms decay; Then fade her flowers, her leaves discoloured weep, Still fondly pining for the vanished ray.

Thou whom I love, the daystar of my sight! When thy dear presence wakes me to delight, Joy in my soul unfolds her fairest flower: But in thy heaven of smiles alone it blooms, And, of their light deprived, in grief consumes, Born but to live within thine eye-beam's power.