Not distant far, a watry Lotos grows,
The spring was new, and all the verdant boughs
Adorn'd with blossoms promis'd fruits that vie
In glowing colours with the Tyrian dye:
Of these she crop'd, to please her infant son,
And I my felf the fame rash act had done:
But lo! I faw, (as near her fide I ftood)
The violated blossoms drop with blood;
Upon the tree I caft a frightful look;
The trembling tree with fudden horror fhook.
Lotis the nymph (if rural tales be true)
As from Priapus' lawless lust she flew,
Forsook her form; and fixing here became
A flow'ry plant, which still preserves her name.
This change unknown, aftonish'd at the fight
My trembling fister strove to urge her flight,
And firft the pardon of the nymphs implor'd,
And those offended sylvan pow'rs ador'd:
Haud procul à ftagno, Tyrios imitata colores,
In fpem baccarum florebat aquatica lotos.
Carpferat hinc Dryope, quos oblectamina nato
Porrigeret, flores: & idem factura videbar;
Namque aderam. Vidi guttas è flore cruentas
Decidere ; & tremulo ramos horrore.moveri.
Scilicet, ut referunt tardi nunc denique agreftes,
Lotis in hanc Nymphe, fugiens obfcana Priapi,
Contulerat verfos, fervato nomine, vultus.
Nefcierat foror boc; quæ cum perterrita retro
Ire; & adoratis vellet difcedere Nymphis;
But when the backward wou'd have fled, the found
Her ftiff'ning feet were rooted in the ground:
In vain to free her fasten'd feet she strove,
And as she struggles, only moves above;
She feels th'encroaching bark around her grow
By quick degrees, and cover all below:
Surpriz'd at this, her trembling hand the heaves
To rend her hair; her hand is fill'd with leaves;
Where late was hair, the shooting leaves are seen
To rife, and fhade her with a fudden green.
The child Amphisus, to her bosom prest,
Perceiv'd a colder and a harder breaft,
And found the springs that ne'er till then deny'd
Their milky moisture, on a fudden dry'd.
I faw, unhappy! what I now relate,
And stood the helpless witness of thy fate,
Embrac'd thy boughs, the rifing bark delay'd,
There wifh'd to grow, and mingle shade with shade.
Hæferunt radice pedes. convellere pugnat :
Nec quidquam, nifi fumma, movet. fuccrefcit ab imo,
Totaque paulatim lentus premit inguina cortex.
Ut vidit: conata manu laniare capillos,
Fronde manum implevit : frondes caput omne tenebant. 45
At puer Amphiffos (namque hoc avus Eurytus illi
Addiderat nomen) materna rigefcere fentit
Ubera: nec fequitur ducentem lacteus humor.
Spectatrix aderam fati crudelis; opemque
Non poteram tibi ferre, foror: quantumque valebam,
Crefcentem truncum ramosque amplexa, morabar:
Et (fateor) volui fub eodem cortice condi.
Behold Andræmon and th' unhappy Sire
Appear, and for their Dryope enquire;
A fpringing tree for Dryope they find,
And print warm kisses on the panting rind,
Proftrate, with tears their kindred plant bedew,
And close embrace, as to the roots they grew.
The face was all that now remain'd of thee,
No more a woman, nor yet quite a tree;
Thy branches hung with humid pearls appear,
From ev'ry leaf distills a trickling tear,
And ftrait a voice, while yet a voice remains,
Thus thro' the trembling boughs in sighs complains.
If to the wretched any faith be giv'n,
I swear by all th' unpitying pow'rs of heav'n,
No wilful crime this heavy vengeance bred 5
In mutual innocence our lives we led:
Ecce vir Andræmon, genitorque miferrimus, adfunt:
Et quærunt Dryopen: Dryopen quærentibus illis
Oftendi Loton. Tepido dant ofcula ligno :
Adfufique fuæ radicibus arboris hærent.
Nil nifi jam faciem, quod non foret arbor, habebas,
Cara foror. Lacrimæ mifero de corpore factis
Irrorant foliis: ac, dum licet, oraque præftant
Vocis iter, tales effundit in aëra queftus.
Si qua fides miferis, hoc me per numina juro
Non meruisse nefas. Patior fine crimine pænam.
Viximus innocua: fi mentior, arida perdam,
If this be false, let these new greens decay,
Let founding axes lop my limbs away,
And crackling flames on all my honours prey.
But from my branching arms this infant bear,
Let some kind nurse supply a mother's care :
And to his mother let him oft' be led,
Sport in her shades, and in her shades be fed;
Teach him, when first his infant voice shall frame 80
Imperfect words, and lisp his mother's name,
To hail this tree; and say, with weeping eyes,
Within this plant my hapless parent lies :
And when in youth he seeks the shady woods,
Oh, let him fly the crystal lakes and floods,
Nor touch the fatal flow'rs; but, warn'd by me,
Believe a Goddess shrin'd in ev'ry tree.
My fire, my fifter, and my spouse farewell!
If in your breasts or love or pity dwell,
Protect your plant, nor let my branches feel
The browzing cattel or the piercing steel.
Quas habeo, frondes; & cæfa fecuribus urar.
Hunc tamen infantem maternis demite ramis:.
Et date nutrici: noftrâque fub arbore fæpe
Lac facitote bibat; noftrâque fub arbore ludat.
Cumque loqui poterit, matrem facitote falutet,
Et triftis dicat: Latet hoc fub ftipite mater.
Stagna tamen timeat; nec carpat ab arbore flores:
Et frutices omnes corpus putet effe Dearum.
Care, vale, conjux, & tu germana, paterque.
Quod fi qua eft pietas, ab acutæ vulnere falcis,
A pecoris morfu frondes defendite noftras.
Farewell! and fince I cannot bend to join
My lips to yours, advance at least to mine.
My son, thy mother's parting kiss receive,
While yet thy mother has a kiss to give.
I can no more; the creeping rind invades
My clofing lips, and hides my head in shades:
Remove your hands, the bark shall foon fuffice
Without their aid to seal these dying eyes.
She ceas'd at once to speak, and ceas'd to be;
And all the nymph was loft within the Tree:
Yet latent life thro' her new branches reign'd,
And long the plant a human heat retain'd.
Et quoniam mihi fas ad vos incumbere non eft,
Erigite huc artus, & ad ofcula nostra venite,
Dum tangi poffum, parvumore attollite natum,
Plura loqui nequeo. Nam jam per candida mollis
Colla liber ferpit: fummoque cacumine condor.
Ex oculis removete manus. Sine munere vestro
Contegat inductus morientia lumina cortex.
Defierant fimul ora loqui, fimul effe: diuque
Corpore mutato rami caluere recentes.
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