Such as I Was Before

Such, as I was before, I’m now left to be: Reckless, susceptible. My friends, you know me; I can’t help feeling charms without strong affection And bashful gentleness and secret agitation. Oh, how oft through life I was deceived by love, How oft, like a young hawk, I beat myself and strived In the deceptive nets spread by Cyprida senseless, And still not rectified by the offences endless, I cry my former pleas to new idols of mine. Translated by Yevgeny Bonver