Don Quijote (II, 68):
Amor, cuando yo pienso
En el mal que me das terrible y fuerte,
Voy corriendoa la muerte,
Pensando asi acabar mi mal inmenso.
Mas en Ilegandoa l paso,
Que es puerto en este mar de mi tormento,
Tanta alegria siento,
Que la vida se esfuerza, y no le paso.
Asi el vivir me mata,
Que la muerte me torna a dar la vida.
iOh condici6n no oidal
La que conmigo muerte y vida trata!
O Love, when my thoughts turn
to the suffering, dread and fierce, you bring,
I swiftly run toward death,
hoping to end forever the pain I feel;
but when I reach that place,
the port in this rough ocean of my torment,
I feel such joy and gladness
that life grows strong and does not let me pass.
And so my living kills me,
and death insists and gives me back my life.
Mine is a novel state:
I go on living, and constantly die.
(Cervantes, Miguel de; Edith Grossman (2009-01-29). Don Quixote (p. 905). Harper Perennial.)
Bembo: Gli Asolani, o Los Asolanos (1515)
Quand'io penso al martire,
Amor, che tu mi dai gravoso e forte,
Corro per gir a morte,
Cost sperando i miei danni finire.
Ma poi ch'io giungo al passo Ch'?
porto in questo mar d'ogni tormento,
Tanto piacer mi sento,
Che l'almas i rinforza,o nd'ion ol passo.
Cost il viver m'ancide:
Cosi la morte mi ritorna in vita.
O miseria infinita,
Che l'uno apporta e l'altra non recide.
Mignarda - Quand'io penso al martire by Jacques Arcadelt (c.1507 –1568)
When I think of the suffering
That love has so grievously forced upon me
I hasten toward death
Therefore hoping to end mine own damnation.
But then to add to the suffering
I stand at the port of this same sea of affliction.
Senseless in the face of such delight.
Why the ship of my soul braces a waterless wave.
Thus, living kills me;
Thus dying, life returns.
O endless misery
One gives, and the other takes away.
Here is my own take on this theme in Latin and then in English.
Amor
Amor, mori velim
abesseque ab asperis vitae
sed mors me a litore tuo repellit
donatque mi tantum gaudium
ut in corde mare tuum meo inveniam.
Love, I would wish to die
and be far from the harshness of life
but death drives me from your shore
and grants me such great joy
that I find your sea in my heart.