If e'en as fortune doth, sweet poesy
Had but an ever-changing wheel possessed,
Swifter in speed than Dian through the sky,
Which was not, is not, ne'er shall be at rest,
Thereon let MICER ARTIEDA[210] lie—
The wheel unchanged the while amid the test—
And he would ever keep the topmost place
For knowledge, intellect, and virtue's grace.
The goodly shower of praises thou didst pour
Upon the rarest intellects and best.
Alone thou meritest and dost secure,
Alone thou dost secure and meritest;
GIL POLO,[211] let thy hopes be firm and sure,
That in this vale thy ashes will find rest
In a new tomb by these my shepherds reared,
Wherein they will be guarded and revered.
CRISÓOBAL DE VIRUES,[212] since thou dost vaunt
A knowledge and a worth like to thy years,
Thyself the genius and the virtue chant
Wherewith thou fleest the world's beguiling fears;
A fruitful land and a well-nurtured plant—
In Spain and foreign lands I shall rehearse
And for the fruit of thy exalted mind
Win fame and honour and affection kind.
If like unto the mind he doth display
SILVESTRE DE ESPINOSA'S[213] praise must be,
A voice more skilled were needed and more gay
A longer time and greater faculty;
But since my voice he guideth on the way,
This guerdon true shall I bestow, that he
May have the blessing Delos' god doth bring
To the choice flood of Hippocrene's spring.
The world adorning as he comes in view
Amongst them an Apollo I behold,
GARCIA ROMERO,[214] discreet, gallant too,
Worthiest of being in this list enrolled;
If dark Peneus' child, whose story true
Hath been in Ovid's chronicles retold,
Had found him in the plains of Thessaly,
Not laurel, but ROMERO[215] would she be.
It breaks the silence and the hallowed bound,
Pierces the air, and riseth to the sky,
The heavenly, hallowed, and heroic sound
That speaks in FRAY PEDRO DE HUETE'S[216] cry;
Of his exalted intellect profound
Fame sang, sings and shall sing unceasingly,
Taking his works as witness of her song
To spread amazement all the world among.
Needs must I now to the last end draw near,
And of the greatest deed I e'er designed
Make a beginning now, which shall, I fear,
Move unto bitter wrath Apollo kind;
Since, although style be wanting, I prepare
To praise with rustic and untutored mind
Two suns that Spain, the country of their birth,
Illumine, and moreover all the earth.
Apollo's hallowed, honourable lore,
Discretion of a courtier mature,
And years well-spent, experience, which a store
Of countless prudent counsels doth assure,
Acuteness of intellect, a ready power
To mark and to resolve whate'er obscure
Difficulty and doubt before them comes,—
Each of these in these twin suns only blooms.