[Jacopone da Todi, Assai m'esforzo a guadagnare, “Laude”, LXXV, 13th century.]
I Laboured long, I strove with might and main:
And yet I cannot keep the good I gain.
Yea, I have been a monk full many a year,
Have suffered much, and wandered far and near,
Have sought and found,—yet held not,—till I fear
That nothing can I show for all my pain.
In calm retreats my truest joy I found;
I strove in prayer, with no uncertain sound:
I fed the poor for many miles around:
In sickness, very patient have I lain.
In uttermost obedience did I dwell,
In suffering and poverty as well;
Yea, I was chaste and happy in my cell,
So far as my poor powers could attain.
Famished and weak, I fasted many a day;
Dried up by heat and pinched by cold I lay;
I was a pilgrim on a weary way,
Or so it seemed, in sunshine and in rain.
To pray, I daily rose before the sun;
Mass did I hear before the dark was done;
To tierce and nones and vespers would I run,
And, after compline, still to watch was fain.
And then was said to me a scornful word!
—Deep in my heart the poisoned arrow stirred,—
At once my tongue was ready when I heard,
With fierce and burning fury to complain.
Now see how great and wealthy I must be!
I heap my gains for all the world to see;
Yet one poor word so fiercely angers me,
That I must strive to pardon it in vain!
