Page images
PDF
EPUB

Per tibi, qui nunquam longe discedat, Amorem,
Perque novem juro, numina nostra, Deas;
Cum mihi nescio quis, Fugiunt tua gaudia, dixit:
Nec me flere diu, nec potuisse loqui;

Et lacrymæ deerant oculis, et lingua palato :
Astrictum gelido frigore pectus erat.
Postquam se dolor invenit; nec pectora plangi,
Nec puduit scissis exululare comis.

Non aliter, quam si gnati pia mater ademti
Portet ad extructos corpus inane rogos.
Gaudet, et e nostro crescit moerore Charaxus
Frater; et ante oculos itque reditque meos.
Utque pudenda mei videatur causa doloris ;
Quid dolet hæc? certe filia vivit, ait.

135

Non veniunt in idem pudor atque amor: omne videbat
Vulgus; eram lacero pectus aperta sinu.
Tu mihi cura, Phaon; te somnia nostra reducunt,
Somnia formoso candidiora die.

140

[blocks in formation]

Like some sad statue, speechless, pale, I stood, 125
Grief chill'd my breast, and stopp'd my freezing blood;
No sigh to rise, no tear had pow'r to flow,
Fix'd in a stupid lethargy of woe:

But when its way th' impetuous passion found,
I rend my tresses, and my breast I wound;
I rave, then weep; I curse, and then complain;
Now swell to rage, now melt in tears again.
Not fiercer pangs distract the mournful dame,
Whose first-born infant feeds the fun'ral flame.
My scornful brother with a smile appears,
Insults my woes and triumphs in my tears,
His hated image ever haunts my eyes,

130

135

140

And why this grief? thy daughter lives, he cries.
Stung with my love, and furious with despair,
All torn my garments, and my bosom bare,
My woes, thy crimes, I to the world proclaim;
Such inconsistent things are love and shame!
"Tis thou art all my care and my delight,
My daily longing, and my dream by night:
Oh night more pleasing than the brightest day, 145
When fancy gives what absence takes away,
And, dress'd in all its visionary charms,
Restores my fair deserter to my arms!

Then round your neck in wanton wreath I twine,
Then you, methinks, as fondly circle mine:

A thousand tender words I hear and speak;
A thousand melting kisses give, and take:

150

NOTES.

Ver. 139. Stung with my love] The ten next verses are much superior to the original.

Blandior interdum, verisque simillima verba
Eloquor; et vigilant sensibus ora meis.
Oscula cognosco, quæ tu committere linguæ,
Aptaque consueras accipere, apta dare.
Ulteriora pudet narrare; sed omnia fiunt.
Et juvat, et sine te non libet esse mihi.
At cum se Titan ostendit, et omnia secum;

Tam cito me somnos destituisse queror.

Antra nemusque peto; tanquam nemus antraque

prosint.

Conscia deliciis illa fuere tuis.

Illuc mentis inops, ut quam furialis Erichtho
Impulit, in collo crine jacente, feror.

Antra vident oculi scabro pendentia topho,

160

Quæ mihi Mygdonii marmoris instar erant.

Invenio sylvam, quæ sæpe cubilia nobis

166

Præbuit, et multa texit opaca coma:
At non invenio dominum sylvæque meumque.
Vile solum locus est: dos erat ille loci.
Agnovi pressas noti mihi cespitis herbas;

De nostro curvum pondere gramen erat.
Incubui; tetigique locum, qua parte fuisti;

Grata prius lacrymas combibit herba meas.
Quin etiam rami positis lugere videntur

Frondibus; et nullæ dulce queruntur aves.
Sola virum non ulta pie moestissima mater
Concinit Ismarium Daulias ales Ityn:
Ales Ityn, Sappho desertos cantat amores.

Hactenus, ut media cætera nocte silent.

Est nitidus, vitroque magis perlucidus omni,

Fons sacer; hunc multi numen habere putant.

170

175

180

Then fiercer joys, I blush to mention these,

155

Yet, while I blush, confess how much they please.
But when, with day, the sweet delusions fly,
And all things wake to life, and joy, but I,
As if once more forsaken, I complain,
And close my eyes to dream of you again:
Then frantic rise, and like some Fury rove
Through lonely plains, and through the silent grove,
As if the silent grove, and lonely plains,
161
That knew my pleasures, could relieve my pains.
I view the grotto, once the scene of love,
The rocks around, the hanging roofs above,
That charm'd me more, with native moss o'ergrown,
Than Phrygian marble, or the Parian stone,
I find the shades that veil'd our joys before;
But, Phaon gone, those shades delight no more.
Here the press'd herbs with bending tops betray
Where oft entwin'd in am'rous folds we lay;
I kiss that earth which once was press'd by you,
And all with tears the withering herbs bedew.
For thee the fading trees appear to mourn,

And birds defer their songs till thy return:

166

170

Night shades the groves, and all in silence lie, 175
All but the mournful Philomel and I:

With mournful Philomel I join my strain,
Of Tereus she, of Phaon I, complain.

A spring there is, whose silver waters show,
Clear as a glass, the shining sands below:
A flow'ry Lotos spreads its arms above,
Shades all the banks, and seems itself a grove;
Eternal greens the mossy margin grace,
Watch'd by the sylvan Genius of the place.

180

Quem supra ramos expandit aquatica lotos,
Una nemus; tenero cespite terra viret.
Hic ego cum lassos posuissem fletibus artus,
Constitit ante oculos Naïas una meos.
Constitit, et dixit, "Quoniam non ignibus æquis
Ureris, Ambracias terra petenda tibi.

185

Phoebus ab excelso, quantum patet, aspicit æquor:
Actiacum populi Leucadiumque vocant.
Hinc se Deucalion Pyrrhæ succensus amore
Misit, et illæso corpore pressit aquas.

195

Nec mora versus Amor tetigit lentissima Pyrrhæ Pectora; Deucalion igne levatus erat.

Hanc legem locus ille tenet. Pete protinus altam Leucada; nec saxo desiluisse time."

Ut monuit, cum voce abiit. Ego frigida surgo: 200 Nec gravidæ lacrymas continuere genæ.

« PreviousContinue »