Juan de Mena ~ LINES TO MACIAS EL ENAMORADO

WE in this radiant circle looked so long
That we found out Macías; in a bower
Of cypress was he weeping still the hour
That ended his dark life and love in wrong.
Nearer I drew for sympathy was strong
In me, when I perceived he was from Spain;
And there I heard him sing the saddest strain
That e'er was tuned in elegiac song.
"Love crowned me with his myrtle crown; my name
Will be pronounced by many, but, alas,
When his pangs caused me bliss, not slighter woe
The mournful suffering that consumed my frame!
His sweet snares conquer the lorn mind they tame,
But do not always then continue sweet;
And since they cause me ruin so complete,
Turn, lovers, turn, and disesteem his fame;
Dangers so passionate be glad to miss;
Learn to be gay; flee from sorrows touch;
Learn to disserve him you have served so much,
Your devoirs pay at any shrine but his:
If the short joy that in his service is,
Were but proportioned to the long, long pain,
Neither would he that once has loved complain,
Nor he that ne'er has loved despair of bliss.
But even as some assassin or night-rover,
Seeing his fellow wound upon the wheel,
Awed by the agony resolves with zeal
His life to 'mend, and character recover;
But when the fearful spectacle is over,
Reacts his crimes with easy unconcern;
So my amours on my despair return,
That I should die, as I have lived, a lover!"