III
PORTRAIT OF A LADY, MADE OF WAX, ALLUDING TO THE INCONSTANCE OF WOMEN

The original is stone, the portrait wax;
the first is ungrateful, the second a flatterer.
Who joined hard marble with soft wax,
when the latter is merciful, the former ungrateful?

Who but love could do so with his intriguing?
Who but intrigue could do anything with love?
As the sun and the moon in the upper sphere
have an arrangement with the darkness and the light.

It was well then that a murmuring bee
offered his libation of flowers to Fili's portrait,
for love turns hard marble to wax.

But, alas, she is wax in her inconstancy,
and stone only in her cruelty.
Who then is safe from her inconstancy?