Translations from the Italian of the Ariosto’s description of the Gardens in Alcina’s Inchanted Island
In these fair fields unnumbered [unfading] flowers are found [abound]
Here purple roses cloath the happy ground;
Here to the Sun expand the Lilies pale.
Faned [Fann’d] by the sweet breath of the western gale.
Here fearless Hares tho’ dark recesses stray,
* [Line ommitted, added at the end.]
And rove at random, unassail’d by fear.
Unknown to the snare the hundsman’s fatal art
That wings the missile weapon to the heart
In social bands they trace [their] Sylvan reign
Chew the rich cud or graze along the plain
In these gay shades the nimble deer delight,
Here herds of Goats ascend the rocky height,
Browse on the shrubs that shade the Vale below
And crop the plants that there profusely grow.
* And troops of conies scour the woodland way,
Here stately stags with branching horns appear,