ACT FIRST.

SCENE FIRST.

Daphne. Silvia.

The water and the acorns, and now the water and the acorns
Are the food and drink of animals,
Since grain and grapes have come into use.
Perhaps, if you tasted even once
A thousandth part of the joys
That a beloved heart tastes in return,
You would say, repentant, sighing:
"Lost is all the time
That is not spent in loving.
O my fled youth,
How many widowed nights,
How many solitary days
Have I consumed in vain,
That could have been spent in this practice,
Which, the more it is repeated, is the more sweet."
Change, change your counsel,
Foolish little thing that you are:
For repenting at the end is of no use.
Sil. When I say, repentant, sighing,
These words which you invent and embellish
As it pleases you, the rivers will return
To their sources, and the wolves will flee
From the lambs, and the hound from the timid hares,
The bear will love the sea, and the dolphin the Alps.
Daph. I know this standoffish childhood.
Just as you are, so I was: thus I carried
My life, and my face, and thus blonde was my hair,
And thus reddish was my mouth,