Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

And as my queen and spouse thou shalt be knownThus, at

Mine, the crown-lover's!' length, he proved

His comfort on her; and the maid was moved;

And casting Theseus' memory down the brine,

She straight received the troth of her divine

Fair Bacchus; Love stood by to close the rite:

The marriage-chorus struck up clear and light,

Flowers sprouted fast about the chamber green,

And with spring-garlands on their heads, I ween,

The Orchomenian dancers came along And danced their rounds in Naxos to the song.

A Hamadryad sang a nuptial dit
Right shrilly and a Naiad sate beside
A fountain, with her bare foot shelving it,
And hymned of Ariadne, beauteous bride,
Whom thus the god of grapes had deified.
Ortygia sang out, louder than her wont,
An ode which Phoebus gave her to be
tried,

And leapt in chorus, with her steadfast front,

While prophet Love, the stars have called a brother,

Burnt in his crown, and twined in one another

His love-flower with the purple roses,

given

In type of that new crown assigned in heaven.

PARAPHRASE ON HESIOD

BACCHUS AND ARIADNE

Theog. 947

THE golden-hairèd Bacchus did espouse That fairest Ariadne, Minos' daughter, And made her wifehood blossom in the house;

Where such protective gifts Kronion brought her,

But I will wreathe thee, sweet, an astral Nor Death nor Age could find her when

crown,

they sought her.

[blocks in formation]

Love, turned from his own name
To Zeus's shame,

Can help no more at all.
And Eos' self, the fair, white-steeded
Morning,-

Her light which blesses other lands,
returning,

Has changed to a gloomy pall!

He, when he saw his son, smiled silently; While, dropping tears, Andromache pressed on,

And clung to his hand, and spake, and named his name.

'Hector, my best one,-thine own nobleness

Must needs undo thee. Pity hast thou

none

For this young child, and this most sad myself,

Who soon shall be thy widow—since that soon

The Greeks will slay thee in the general rush

And then, for me, what refuge, 'reft of thee,

She looked across the land with eyes of But to go graveward? Then, no comfort

amber,

She saw the city's fall,—

She, who, in pure embraces,

Had held there, in the hymeneal chamber, Her children's father, bright Tithonus old,

Whom the four steeds with starry brows

and paces

Bore on, snatched upward, on the car of gold,

And with him, all the land's full hope
of joy!

The love-charms of the gods are vain for
Troy.

PARAPHRASES ON HOMER

HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE

Iliad, Lib. VI

more

Shall touch me, as in the old sad times
thou know'st-

Grief only-grief! I have no father now,
No mother mild! Achilles the divine,
He slew my father, sacked his lofty
Cilicia's populous city, and slew its king,
Thebes,
Eetion-father!-did not spoil the corse,
Because the Greek revered him in his soul,

But burnt the body with its daedal arms,
And poured the dust out gently. Round
that tomb

The Oreads, daughters of the goat-nursed
Zeus,

Tripped in a ring, and planted their
green elms.

There were seven brothers with me in the house,

Who all went down to Hades in one day,

SHE rushed to meet him: the nurse For he slew all, Achilles the divine,

following

Bore on her bosom the unsaddened child,
A simple babe, prince Hector's well-
loved son,

Like a starshining when the world is dark.
Scamandrius, Hector called him but

the rest

Named him Astyanax, the city's prince,
Because that Hector only, had saved
Troy.

1 Rendered after Mr. Burges's, reading. in

some respects-not quite all.

Famed for his swift feet,-slain among

their herds

Ofcloven-footed bulls and flocking sheep! My mother too, who queened it o'er the woods

Of Hippoplacia, he, with other spoil,
Seized, and, for golden ransom, freed
too late,-

Since, as she went home, arrowy Artemis
Met her and slew her at my father's door.
But-oh, my Hector,-thou art still to

me

Father and mother!-yes, and brother dear,

O thou, who art my sweetest spouse beside!

Come now, and take me into pity! Stay I' the town here with us! Do not make thy child

An orphan, nor a widow, thy poor wife! Call up the people to the fig-tree, where The city is most accessible, the wall Most easy of assault !—for thrice thereby The boldest Greeks have mounted to the breach,

Both Ajaxes, the famed Idomeneus, Two sons of Atreus, and the noble one Of Tydeus,-whether taught by some wise seer,

Or by their own souls prompted and inspired.'

[blocks in formation]

To Argos, thou shalt throw the distaff there,

Not for thy uses-or shalt carry instead Upon thy loathing brow, as heavy as doom,

The water of Greek wells-Messeis' own, Or Hyperea's!-that some stander-by, Marking thy tears fall, shall say, "This is She,

The wife of that same Hector who fought best

Of all the Trojans, when all fought for Troy_"

Aye!—and, so speaking, shall renew thy pang

That,'reft of Him so named, thou shouldst survive

To a slave's life! But earth shall hide my corse

Ere that shriek sound, wherewith thou art dragged from Troy.'

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Past Memphis, down Nile!
Ah! but Love all the while
Builds his nest in my heart,
Through the cold winter-weeks:
And as one Love takes flight,
Comes another, O Swallow,
In an egg warm and white,
And another is callow.
And the large gaping beaks
Chirp all day and all night:
And the Loves who are older

Help the young and the poor Loves,
And the young Loves grown bolder
Increase by the score Loves-
Why, what can be done?

If a noise comes from one, Can I bear all this rout of a hundred and more Loves?

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

III

I

My child, we were two children, Small, merry by childhood's law; We used to crawl to the hen-house And hide ourselves in the straw.

II

We crowed like cocks, and whenever
The passers near us drew-
Cock-a-doodle! they thought

'Twas a real cock that crew.

III

The boxes about our courtyard
We carpeted to our mind,
And lived there both together-
Kept house in a noble kind.

[blocks in formation]
« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »