Long absence makes of life a dreary void; No hope of happiness can give repose To him that ever fears to be forgot
 Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605). copy citation

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Author Miguel de Cervantes
Source Don Quixote
Topic happiness fear
Date 1605
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by John Ormsby
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/996/996-h/996-h.htm

Context

“For, though it be to solitudes remote The hoarse vague echoes of my sorrows sound Thy matchless cruelty, my dismal fate Shall carry them to all the spacious world. Disdain hath power to kill, and patience dies Slain by suspicion, be it false or true; And deadly is the force of jealousy; Long absence makes of life a dreary void; No hope of happiness can give repose To him that ever fears to be forgot; And death, inevitable, waits in hall. But I, by some strange miracle, live on A prey to absence, jealousy, disdain; Racked by suspicion as by certainty; Forgotten, left to feed my flame alone. And while I suffer thus, there comes no ray Of hope to gladden me athwart the gloom;” source