extrait de "DÉLIE"	from "DELIA"
Maurice Scève	tr. James Kirkup (tanka)
Tant je l'aymay, qu'en elle encor je vis: Et tant la vy, que, maulgre moy, je l'ayme. Le sens, et l'ame y furent tant ravis, Que par l'Oeil fault, que le coeur la desayme. Est il possible en ce degré supreme Que fermeté son oultrepas revoque? Tant fut la flamme en nous deux reciproque, Que mon feu luict, quand le sien clair m'appert. Mourant le sien, le mien tost se suffoque. Et ainsi elle, en se perdant, me pert.	I loved her so much, I still seem to see her now: as long as I live I shall keep on loving her. Spirit and soul thus ravished still the heart can not love her through the Eye alone. - Is it possible, reaching this supreme summit, only rigour can restrain love's audacity? So reciprocal in both shines the flame of love, my own fire glows when she, clear as day, shows her flame to me. Her own, in dying, makes my own flame suffocate. Losing thus herself, even so is she, at one and the same time, losing me.

Trans. Copyright © James Kirkup 2001

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