As if it were Proteus or a magician, beauty shifts its shape and changes image: comes forth now white, now black, in two beautiful eyes, now gentle, now savage; now in sweet sapphires hues it goes on soft and pleasant tours with Love, now with pearls, now purple, now in the roses, now in the violets of a face it shows itself looks like a star now, now the moon, the sun now; by rare chance, sometimes, it turns up as Silence on a dark night.
(Transl. by M. Pastore Passaro)
Come sia Proteo o mago il bello si trasforma e cangia imago; or si fa bianco or nero in duo begli occhi, or mansueto or fero; or in vaghi zaffiri fa con Amor soavi e lieti giri; or s’imperla or s’inostra, or ne le rose ed or ne le vïole d’un bel viso ei si mostra: ora stella somiglia, or luna, or sole: talor per gran ventura egli par il Silenzio a notte oscura.
