For the impossible I fight,
And, should I wish to retreat,
Step nor pathway is in sight,
For, till victory or defeat,
Desire draweth me with might;
Though I know that I must die,
Ere the victory I achieve,
When I most in peril lie,
Then it is that I receive
More faith in adversity.
Never may I hope to gain
Fortune; this is Heaven's decree.
Heaven the works of hope hath ta'en
And doth lavish aye on me
Countless certainties of pain;
But my breast of constancy,
Which amidst Love's living flame
Glows and melteth ceaselessly,
In exchange this boon doth claim:
More faith in adversity.
Certain doubt and fickleness
Traitorous faith and surest fear,
Love's unbridled wilfulness,
Trouble ne'er the loving care
Which is crowned with steadfastness,
Time on hasty wing may fly,
Absence come, or disdain cold,
Evil grow, tranquillity
Fail, yet I as bliss will hold
More faith in adversity.
Certain folly is it not,
And a madness sure and great,
That I set my heart on what
Fortune doth deny, and Fate,
Nor is promised by my lot?
Dread of everything have I,
There is naught can give me pleasure,
Yet amidst such agony
Love bestows its chiefest treasure:
More faith in adversity.
Victory o'er my grief I gain,
Which to such a pass is brought
That it doth Love's height attain,
And I find that from this thought
Comes some solace to my pain;
Although poor and lowly I,
Yet relief so rich in woe
To the fancy I apply,
That the heart may ever know
More faith in adversity.
All the more that every ill
Comes with every ill to-day,
And that they my life may fill
With more pain, though deadly they,
They do keep me living still;
But our life in dignity
With a noble end is crowned,
And in mine my fame shall lie,
For in life, in death I found
More faith in adversity.
It seemed to Marsilio that what Elicio had been singing accorded with his mood so well that he wished to follow him in the same idea, and so, without waiting for anyone else to take the lead in it, to the sound of the same instruments, he began to sing thus:
MARSILIO.
Ah! 'tis easy for the wind
All the hopes to bear away
That could ever be designed
And could their foundations lay
On vain fancies of the mind;
For all hopes of loving gain,
All the ways Time doth uncover,
Wholly are destroyed and slain;
But the while in the true lover
Faith, faith only, doth remain.
It achieves such potency
That, despite disdain which never
Offereth security,
Bliss it promiseth me ever,
Bliss that keeps the hope in me;
And, though Love doth quickly wane
In the angry breast and white
That increaseth so my pain,
Yet in mine, in its despite,
Faith, faith only, doth remain.