Page images
PDF
EPUB

No charge I gave you, and no charge could give,
But this, Be mindful of our loves, and live.
Now by the Nine, those powers ador'd by me,
And Love, the God that ever waits on thee,

120

When first I heard (from whom I hardly knew)
That you were fled, and all my joys with you,

Like some fad statue, speechless, pale I stood,
Grief chill'd my breast, and stopp'd my freezing blood;

125

No figh to rise, no tear had power to flow,

Fix'd in a stupid lethargy of woe:

But when its way th' impetuous paffion found,
I rend my tresses, and my breast I wound;
I rave, then weep; I curse, and then complain;

130

Now swell to rage, now melt in tears again.

Not fiercer pangs distract the mournful dame,

Whose first-born infant feeds the funeral flame.

My

Non mandata dedi; neque enim mandata dedissem
Ulla, nifi ut nolles immemor esse mei.

Per tibi, qui nunquam longe difcedat, Amorem,
Perque novem juro, numina nostra, Deas;
Cum mihi nefcio quis, Fugiunt tua gaudia, dixit:
Nec me flere diu, nec potuifsse loqui:
Et lacrymae deerant oculis, et lingua palato :
Aftrictum gelido frigore pectus erat.
Poftquam se dolor invenit; nec pectora plangi,
Nec puduit scissis exululare comis :
Non aliter quam si nati pia mater adempti
Portet ad extructos corpus inane rogos.

120

My fcornful brother with a smile appears,
Infults my woes, and triumphs in my tears,
His hated image ever haunts my eyes;
And why this grief? thy daughter lives, he cries.
Stung with my love, and furious with despair,

35

All torn my garments, and my bosom bare,
My woes, thy crimes, I to the world proclaim;

140

Such inconfiftent things are love and shame! 'Tis thou art all my care and my delight,

My daily longing, and my dream by night:
O night, more pleasing than the brightest day,
When fancy gives what absence takes away,
And, dress'd in all its visionary charms,
Restores my fair deferter to my arms!

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

Gaudet et e noftro crefcit moerore Charaxus

145

150

A thousand

135

Frater; et ante oculos itque reditque meos.
Utque pudenda mei videatur causa doloris;
Quid dolet haec? certe filia vivit, ait.
Non veniunt in idem pudor atque amor: omne videbat
Vulgus; eram lacero pectus aperta finu.

Tu mihi cura, Phaon; te fomnia nostra reducunt;
Somnia formofo candidiora die.

Illic te invenio, quanquam regionibus absis;
Sed non longa fatis gaudia fomnus habet.

Saepe tuos nostra cervice onerare lacertos,
Saepe tuae videor supposuisse meos.

.

140

145

150

155

A thousand tender words I hear and speak;
A thousand melting kisses give, and take:
Then fiercer joys, I blush to mention these,
Yet, while I blush, confefs how much they please.
But when, with day, the sweet delufions 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 rife, and like fome Fury rove
Through lonely plains, and through the filent grove,
As if the filent grove, and lonely plains,
That knew my pleasures, could relieve my pains.
I view the Grotto, once the scene of love,
The rocks around, the hanging roofs above,

Blandior interdum; verisque simillima verba
Eloquor; et vigilant sensibus ora meis.
Oscula cognofco; quae tu committere linguae,
Aptaque confuêras accipere, apta dare.
Ulteriora pudet narrare; fed omnia fiunt,

That

155

Et juvat, et fine te non libet esse mihi. At cum se Titan oftendit, et omnia fecum; Tam cito me fomnos destituisse queror. Antra nemusque peto, tanquam nemus antraque pro

fint.

Confcia deliciis illa fuere tuis.

Illuc mentis inops, ut quam furialis Erichtho
Impulit, in collo crine jacente feror.
Antra vident oculi scabro pendentia topho,
Quae mihi Mygdonii marmoris inftar erant.

160 170

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 amorous 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 fongs till thy return >
Night shades the groves, and all in filence lie,
All but the mournful Philomel and I :
With mournful Philomel I join my strain,
Of Tereus the, of Phaon I complain.

:

175

A fpring

Invenio sylvam, quae faepe cubilia nobis
Praebuit, et multa texit opaca coma.
At non invenio dominum sylvaeque, meumque.
Vile solum locus eft: 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.
Quinetiam rami positis lugere videntur
Frondibus; et nullae dulce queruntur aves.
Sola virum non ulta pie moestissima mater
Concinit Ifmarium Daulias ales Ityn.
Ales Ityn, Sappho defertos cantat amores:
Hactenus, ut media caetera nocte filent.

165

170

175

A spring there is, whose silver waters show,
Clear as a glass, the shining fands below;
A flowery 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.
Here as I lay, and swell'd with tears the flood,
Before my fight a watery Virgin stood:

180

185

190

She stood and cry'd, "O you that love in vain ! "Fly hence, and seek the fair Leucadian main. "There stands a rock, from whose impending steep " Apollo's fane surveys the rolling deep; "There injur'd lovers leaping from above, "Their flames extinguish, and forget to love. " Deucalion once with hopeless fury burn'd, " In vain he lov'd, relentless Pyrrha scorn'd: "But when from hence he plung'd into the main, 195 "Deucalion scorn'd, and Pyrrha lov'd in vain.

" Haste,

Est nitidus, vitroque magis perlucidus omní,
Fons facer; hunc multi numen habere putant.
Quem fupra ramos expandit aquatica lotos,
Una nemus; tenero cespite terra viret.
Hic ego cum lassos posuissem fletibus artus,
Conftitit ante oculos Naïas una meos.
Constitit, et dixit, " Quoniam non ignibus aequis

180

185

" Ureris, Ambracias terra petenda tibi. " Phoebus ab excelso, quantum patet, afpicit æquor: " Actiacum populi Leucadiumque vocant.

" Hinc se Deucalion Pyrrhae fuccenfus amore

" Mifit, et illaeso corpore preffit aquas.

195

« EelmineJätka »