Happy were he could finish forth his fate... ― Счастливец тот, кто свой закончил путь...

On February 25, 1601, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, aged 34, was beheaded on Tower Green within the Tower of London. Beheading in the privacy of Tower Green was considered a privilege of rank and those executed there were spared insults from the jeering crowd. He was buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London...

A PASSION OF MY LORD OF ESSEX
by Robert Devereux Роберт Деверё, 2nd Earl of Essex, the last of Queen Elizabeth I's favourites

Happy were he could finish forth his fate
In some unhaunted desert, where, obscure
From all society, from love and hate
Of worldly folk; then might he sleep secure;
Then wake again, and ever give God praise,
Content with hip, with haws, and bramble-berry;
In contemplation passing all his days,
And change of holy thoughts to make him merry;
Who, when he dies, his tomb might be a bush,
Where harmless Robin dwells with gentle thrush.

This exists in nine manuscripts and was said to have been appended to a letter sent to Queen Elizabeth from Ireland, though it does not appear in the surviving manuscript. It may have been written prior to Essex's 1601 rebellion.

Счастливец тот, кто свой закончил путь
В сокрытой от людей глуши безбрежной,
Смог от любви народов отдохнуть
И гнева их; спать мог бы безмятежно;
Проснувшись снова, Бога восхвалить,
Боярышнику рад и ежевике;
Все дни плести раздумий сладких нить,
С весельем позабыв святые лики;
Где, как умрёшь, могила зацветёт,
И милый дрозд с малиновкой споёт.

Перевод с английского: Александр Лукьянов