Destined to war from very infancy...

Destined to war from very infancy

Was I, Roberto Dati, and I took

In Malta the white symbol of the Cross:

Nor in life's vigorous season did I shun

Hazard or toil; among the sands was seen

Of Libya; and not seldom, on the banks

Of wide Hungarian Danube,‘ twas my lot

To hear the sanguinary trumpet sounded.

So lived I, and repined not at such fate:

This only grieves me, for it seems a wrong,

That stripped of arms I to my end am brought

On the soft down of my paternal home.

Yet haply Arno shall be spared all cause

To blush for me. Thou, loiter not nor halt

In thy appointed way, and bear in mind

How fleeting and how frail is human life!