Do tempo (ainda e sempre) So, Time (The same thought resumed) So, Time, Royal, sublime; Heretofore held to be Master and enemy, Thief of my Love's adornings, Despoiling her to scornings: - The sound philosopher Now sets him to aver You are nought But a thought Without reality. Young, old, Passioned, cold, All the loved-lost thus Are beings continuous, In dateless dure abiding, Over the present striding With placid permanence That knows not transience: Firm in the Vast, First, last; Afar, yet close to us. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) --------