Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

2.

If when the wintry tempest roar'd
He sped to Hero, nothing loth,
And thus of old thy current pour'd,
Fair Venus! how I pity both!

of the current is such that no boat can row directly across, and it may in some measure be estimated from the circumstance of the whole distance being accomplished by one of the parties in an hour and five, and by the other in an hour and ten, minutes. The water was extremely cold from the melting of the mountain-snows. About three weeks before, in April, we had made an attempt, but having ridden all the way from the Troad the same morning, and the water being of an icy chillness, we found it necessary to postpone the completion till the frigate anchored below the castles, when we swam the straits, as above stated; entering a considerable way above the European, and landing below the Asiatic, fort. Chevalier says that a young Jew swam the same distance for his mistress; and Oliver mentions its having been done by a Neapolitan ; but our consul, Tarragona, remembered neither of these circumstances, and tried to dissuade us from the attempt. A number of the Salsette's crew were known to have accomplished a greater distance; and the only thing that surprised me was, that, as doubts had been entertained of the truth of Leander's story, no traveller had ever endeavoured to ascertain its practicability.

3.

For me, degenerate modern wretch,
Though in the genial month of May,
My dripping limbs I faintly stretch,
And think I've done a feat to-day.

4.

But since he cross'd the rapid tide,
According to the doubtful story,

To woo,-and-Lord knows what beside,

And swam for Love, as I for Glory;

1

5.

'Twere hard to say who fared the best:

Sad mortals! thus the Gods still plague you!

He lost his labour, I my jest:

For he was drown'd, and I've the ague.

*Z tender I sup For f

beggi

whic

in G

amon

VII..

SONG.

Ζώη με, σας αγαπώ. *

ATHENS, 1810.

1.

MAID of Athens, ere we part,
Give, oh, give me back my heart!
Or, since that has left my breast,
Keep it now, and take the rest!
Hear my vow before I go,

Ζώη με, σὰς ἀγαπῶ.

*Zoë mou, sas agapo, or Zwŋ μỡ, odsảyaww, a Romaic expression of tenderness: if I translate it I shall affront the gentlemen, as it may seem I supposed they could not; and if I do not I may affront the ladies. For fear of any misconstruction on the part of the latter I shall do so, begging pardon of the learned. It means, My Life, I love you!" which sounds very prettily in all languages, and is as much in fashion in Greece at this day as, Juvenal tells us, the two first words were amongst the Roman ladies, whose erotic expressions were all Hellenized.

[ocr errors]

2.

By those tresses unconfin'd,
Woo'd by each Ægean wind;
By those lids whose jetty fringe
Kiss thy soft cheeks' blooming tinge;
By those wild eyes like the roe,

Ζώη με, σας αγαπώ.

3.

By that lip I long to taste;
By that zone-encircl'd waist;
By all the token-flowers that tell

What words can never speak so well;
By Love's alternate joy and woe,
Ζώη με, σας ἀγαπῶ.

Transl

Ελλ

revo

as t

mea

* In the East (where ladies are not taught to write, lest they should scribble assignations) flowers, cinders, pebbles, &c. convey the sentiments of the parties by that universal deputy of Mercury-an old A cinder says, "I burn for thee;" a bunch of flowers tied with hair, "Take me and fly;" but a pebble declares-what nothing else can.

woman.

4.

Maid of Athens! I am gone:

Think of me, sweet! when alone,
Though I fly to Islambol,*

Athens holds my heart and soul:
Can I cease to love thee? No!
Ζώη μα, σας αγαπω.

VIII.

Translation of the famous Greek War Song, Δεύτε παῖδες τῶν 'Exλvwv, written by Riga, who perished in the attempt to revolutionize Greece. The following translation is as literal as the author could make it in verse, which is of the same measure with that of the original. See Appendix.

SONS of the Greeks, arise!

The glorious hour's gone forth,

And, worthy of such ties,

Display who gave us birth.

3

* Constantinople.

« AnteriorContinuar »