And you, and you that burst our eyes with beauty,

Are sapped and rotten?

Alas! When my young guests have done with singing,

I break it, leaf and fruit, my garden’s glory,

And hold it high among them, and say after:

“O my poor Ovid,

“Years pass, and loves pass too; and yet remember

For the clear time when we were boys together,

These tears at home are shed; and with you also

Your bough is dying.”