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[12]
Child of my vain
hopes, did I see your eyes fading in death and your
breath take its last flight? Had I the heart to
receive your fleeting spirit,1 as I embraced your cold
pale body, and to live on breathing the common air.
Justly do I endure the agony that now is mine, and
the thoughts that torment me.
1 It was customary for the next-of-kin to receive in the mouth the last breath of the dying to continue the existence of the spirit.
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