The dragon's lair

A personal collection of verse

Cecco Angiolieri


If it were possible mere grief could slay,
How many are now alive who would be dead:
Myself for one, since Lucifer the Dread
Forbears to snatch me body and soul away.
Not that my sufferings are less, I say,
For hell contains no punishment so dire,
No pangs of tribulation in the fire,
Compared with all I undergo today.
Therefore I wish that I had not been born,
Or born a thing unfeeling, since of late
I find no way to lessen sorrow’s sum.
And being in this manner most forlorn,
I’d welcome the arrival of the date,
So long foretold, when Antichrist should come.

translated by: C.H. Scott and Anthony Mortimer