Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

To him, though ruined, now extend your hand!
Eve. As I have known to sin,

So shall I know to weep;

For who in sinning knew forbidden joy,
Humble in punishment, should know to suffer.
Be mute, be mute, my tongue,

Speak thou within, my heart,

And say with words of love,

See how to mortals, even in perdition,
The hand of heavenly succour was extended!
Michael. At length, since now with joy

Man, being thus delivered

From hell's keen talon, feels unbounded transport, And in his rapture deems

Earth turned to heaven, this world a paradise;

By these pure splendid dazzling rays of heaven,
By these delightful fires,

That in the light of God more lovely blaze,

Rich with new beams, and with new suns this day, Day of festivity,

The day of paradise, rather a day

Blest in itself, and blessing every other !

Let all with festive joy

Of God's indulgence sing;

Of Adam and of Eve,

Now made on earth the denizens of heaven;

And let your tuneful songs

Become the wonder of futurity.

ANGELS SING.

Move, let us move our feet

There, where this man shall now

Wash out his past offence

With humble, hallowed drops;

And of the mighty Maker

Praise we the love and mercy,

That in this day to man's envenomed wound

Suddenly gives his pity's healing aid;

Rejects him and receives,

Deeming his every wrong and error light;

And now at last with more benignant zeal,

And in despite of Satan,

Gives him, redeemed from Hell,

A seat amid the golden stars of Heaven.

Ye progeny of Adam,

Whose race we shall behold adorn the world,

Ye shall not pray in vain

To your high Lord, the fountain of all mercy.

Be leaves of that pure branch,

On which the Word Incarnate shall be grafted!
Thunder, infuriate Hell,

Be stormy! yet his leaf shall never fall:

To him a joyous offspring

Is promised by the Lord of heaven's great vineyard, Stricken, transfixt, enkindled in a blaze,

And burning with eternal love for man.

[graphic]

TRANSLATIONS OF GREEK VERSES.

FROM THE GREEK OF JULIANUS.

A SPARTAN, his companions slain,

Alone from battle fled;

His mother, kindling with disdain

That she had borne him, struck him dead;
For courage, and not birth alone,

In Sparta, testifies a son!

ON THE SAME, BY PALLADIUS.

A SPARTAN 'scaping from the fight,
His mother met him in his flight,
Upheld a falchion to his breast,
And thus the fugitive addressed

"Thou canst but live to blot with shame
Indelible thy mother's name,

While every breath that thou shalt draw
Offends against thy country's law;
But, if thou perish by this hand,
Myself indeed throughout the land,
To my dishonour, shall be known
The mother still of such a son;
But Sparta will be safe and free,
And that shall serve to comfort me."

AN EPITAPH.

My name-my country-what are they to thee?
What, whether base or proud my pedigree?
Perhaps I far surpassed all other men ;
Perhaps I fell below them all; what then?
Suffice it, stranger! that thou seest a tomb;

Thou knowest its use; it hides--no matter whom.

ANOTHER.

TAKE to thy bosom, gentle Earth! a swain
With much hard labour in thy service worn;
He set the vines that clothe yon ample plain,
And he these olives that the vale adorn.

He filled with grain the glebe; the rills he led
Through this green herbage, and those fruitful bowers ;
Thou, therefore, Earth! lie lightly on his head,
His hoary head, and deck his grave with flowers.

ANOTHER.

PAINTER, this likeness is too strong,
And we shall mourn the dead too long.

ANOTHER.

AT three-score winters' end I died
A cheerless being, sole and sad;
The nuptial knot I never tied,
And wish my father never had.

BY CALLIMACHUS.

AT morn we placed on his funereal bier
Young Melanippus; and at eventide,
Unable to sustain a loss so dear,

By her own hand his blooming sister died.
Thus Aristippus mourned his noble race,
Annihilated by a double blow,

Nor son could hope, nor daughter more to embrace,
And all Cyrene saddened at his woe.

ON MILTIADES.

MILTIADES! thy valour best
(Although in every region known)
The men of Persia can attest,
Taught by thyself at Marathon.

ON AN INFANT.

BEWAIL not much, my parents! me, the prey
Of ruthless Hades, and sepulchred here.
An infant, in my fifth scarce finished year,
He found all sportive, innocent, and gay,
Your young Callimachus; and if I knew
Not many joys, my griefs were also few.

BY HERACLIDES.

IN Cnidus born, the consort I became
Of Euphron. Aretimias was my name.
His bed I shared, nor proved a barren bride,
But bore two children at a birth, and died.
One child I leave to solace and uphold
Euphron hereafter, when infirm and old.
And one, for his remembrance sake, I bear
To Pluto's realm, till he shall join me there.

ON THE REED.

I WAS of late a barren plant,
Useless, insignificant,

Nor fig, nor grape, nor apple bore,
A native of the marshy shore;

But gathered for poetic use,

And plunged into a sable juice,
Of which my modicum I sip
With narrow mouth and slender lip,
At once, although by nature dumb,
All eloquent I have become,
And speak with fluency untired,
As if by Phoebus' self inspired.

TO HEALTH.

ELDEST born of powers divine!
Blessed Hygeia! be it mine
To enjoy what thou canst give,
And henceforth with thee to live:
For in power if pleasure be,
'Wealth or numerous progeny,
Or in amorous embrace,
Where no spy infests the place;
Or in aught that heaven bestows
To alleviate human woes,
When the wearied heart despairs
Of a respite from its cares;
These and every true delight
Flourish only in thy sight;
And the sister Graces three
Owe, themselves, their youth to thee,
Without whom we may possess

Much, but never happiness.

ON INVALIDS.

FAR happier are the dead, methinks, than they Who look for death, and fear it every day.

« ForrigeFortsett »