Petrarch - Sonnet CXXXV lyrics

LIFE WILL FAIL HIM BEFORE HOPE Love to my mind recalling that sweet thought, The ancient confidant our lives between, Well comforts me, and says I ne'er have been So near as now to what I hoped and sought. I, who at times with dangerous falsehood fraught, At times with partial truth, his words have seen, Live in suspense, still missing the just mean, 'Twixt yea and nay a constant battle fought. Meanwhile the years pa** on: and I behold In my true gla** the adverse time draw near Her promise and my hope which limits here. So let it be: alone I grow not old; Changes not e'en with age my loving troth; My fear is this—the short life left us both. Macgregor.