Why Have You to Sustain
Why Have You to Sustain - meaning Summary
Grief and Missed Opportunities
The poem addresses a friend who dwells in endless sorrow and idle worry. It warns that by postponing life in bashful mourning, he will one day regret the time wasted. When that day comes he will painfully recall the present and long for what he refused, willing to pay with exile or death for a single approving word or the simple sound of his beloved’s footsteps. It stresses lost chance and bitter hindsight.
Read Complete AnalysesWhy have you to sustain the mourning With evil thoughts without end, Wait for the day of outgoing In bashful sadness, o, my friend? It'll come -- the day of lamentations! Amidst the mute and empty plain, You'll call the vivid recollection Of time you now lose in vain! Then you, unhappy, will be ready To buy, with your exile or death, The single word of your sweet lady, The easy sound of her steps. Translated by Yevgeny Bonver
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