(1565-1623)
The insane love increases, the illusion increases
in him who saw his fair image in the waters;
and he, sole cause of his mortal plight,
seeks the remedy and makes his plight worse.
He looks into the pool once more and sees--rare prodigy!--
that it spouts fire; he imagines that
he can quench it in the water, and his unlucky star
closes his eyes to this easy deception.
His powers departed from this blind beloved lover;
and his senses left him for fatal beauty
fell a victim to his fate;
and now that he is transformed into a purple flower,
the water that was the cause of his death
makes him grow and tries to give him life.
(Date unavailable--late 16th or early 17th century)