This is the english original of

The Best Thing in the World by E.B.R. Browning


You may know Elizabeth Barret Browning better for Aurora Leigh or Portugese Sonnets.
This particular poem is one she wrote in her later years, living in Italy.
It deserves to be better known.

What's the best thing in the world?
June-rose, by May-rose impearled;
Sweet south-wind that means no rain;
Truth, not cruel to a friend;
Pleasure, not in haste to end;
Beauty, not self-decked and curled
Till its pride is over-plain
Light, that never makes you wink;
Memory, that gives no pain;
Love, when, so, you're loved again.
What's the best thing in the world?
- something out of it, I think.


My latin version of this is

Qualis optimum in mundo esse?
Rosa Iunii, picto rore Maii,
Dulcis auster, non pluvia significant.
Veritas, non crudelis amico,
Voluptas, non raptim finire,
Pulchritudo, non ipsa decoranscrispansque,
Dum eius superbia apertam.
Lux, nunquam vos facere nictare,
Memoria, non dolorem donat,
Amor,cum item amaris etiam.
Qualis optimum in mundo esse?
Aliquid ex eo - cogito


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