Yet how these fingers and this heart would know!
Why shall my tears fall, as I sit among
My oaks and poplars, fountains and my sculptures,
Before my cypresses and Sabine hills?
Have I not seen them all a thousand times?
Are they not vanity? Would I behold
Them more? Life, to an aged Cardinal,
Blind and enfeebled, should but celebrate
The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ who died.
Time should grow short for prayer and preparation.