How my heart envies you, rare happy souls--

How my heart envies you, rare happy souls--
your strong loving bond made you welcome death
that last hour which is always bitter
to others who die alone was for you sweet.

What you most hungered for fate didn't take--
the spinning of your life's threads didn't go
on and on, nor cut off so suddenly:
you shared life and now death in that bright world.

In Love's mutual flame two were made one;
nothing else was needed--bodies entwined
by nature, souls by love--you now dwell ringed

in immortal flame. Blest life, blest hours,
the light that fused, the minds that joined more blest
that lovely indissoluble knot!

An image of the Italian text from Visconti's 1840 edition
Notes:
From V XXXVII:37. See also B A1:88:47; R CXVI:339. To Francesco Maria Molza after the death of his parents within a short span of time; see AB, "VC & Francesco Maria Molza: Conflict in Communication," Italian Studies 32 (1977), 41-77. Key

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