TESTO DEL LIED

"Hypochondriacus"
di Charles Lamb (1775-1834)

By myself walking,
To myself talking,
When as I ruminate
On my untoward fate,
Scarcely seem I
Alone sufficiently,
Black thoughts continually
Crowding my privacy.
They come unbidden
Like foes at a wedding
Thrusting their faces
In better guests' places,
Peevish and malcontent,
Clownish, impertinent,
Dashing the merriment:
So in like fashions
Dim cogitations
Follow and haunt me,
Striving to daunt me,
In my heart festering,
In my ears whispering
"Thy friends are treacherous,
Thy foes are dangerous,
Thy dreams ominous."
Fierce Anthropophagi
Spectra, Diaboli,
What scared St Anthony,
Hobgoblins, lemures,
Dreams of Antipodes
Night-riding incubi
Troubling the fantasy,
All dire illusions
Causing confusions.
Figments heretical,
Scruples fantastical
Doubts diaboilical
Abandon vexeth me,
Mahu perplexeth me,
Lucifer teareth me -
Jesu, Maria
liberate nos ab his diris tentationibus
Inimici!