I read these stanzas with a feeling akin to that with which I should look at a picture on the same subject by Perugino. They may be translated thus:—
My son, in thee and me · life still was felt as one;
I loved thee much, and thou lovedst me · in perfectness, my son;
My faith in thee was sure, · and I thy faith had won;
And doth thy large and pitying love · forget me now, my son?
My son, forget me not, · but take my soul with thine;
The earth holds but one heart · that kindred is with mine,—
John, whom thou gavest to be my child, · who here with me doth pine;
I pray thee, then, that to my prayer · thou graciously incline.
[36] Mariana, Hist., Lib. XII. c. 15, ad fin.