from Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Against Women Unconstant'.
Lo! in her obsessiveness
Many a man has lost his grace.
So I depart from her inconstantness.
For well I know whilst in her space,
Love shan’t last a seasons trace:
The stranger things she seeks desirously keen.
Now instead of blue, off she walks in green.
Like a mirror beholds to impress,
The moment she lingers soon must pass,
Knowing her charms will gather new witness
There is no trust for the heart to embrace.
And like a peacock pivots her face
From one to a thousand changes seen.
Once she dressed in velvet blue,
now, she wears her feathers green.
She shall be enshrined upon her fickleness.
Higher than Delilah, Cressida or, Cadence.
Remains forever changing in her inconstantness.
Nor blemishes her cheek in pale forgiveness.
If I walk on, we might renew by chance,
Next summertime sun, she’ll know well what I mean.
Now instead of blue, she has seen my eyes of green.
translated by KJ.McGuigan
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