FRAGMENT OF THE TENTH ECLOGUE. [v. 1-26.] TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN OF VIRGIL. MELODIOUS Arethusa, o'er my verse Shed thou once more the spirit of thy stream: Who denies verse to Gallus? So, when thou Glidest beneath the green and purple gleam Of Syracusan waters, mayst thou flow Unmingled with the bitter Doric dew! Begin, and, whilst the goats are browzing now The soft leaves, in our way let us pursue The melancholy loves of Gallus. List! We sing not to the dead: the wild woods knew His sufferings, and their echoes.. 10 Young Naiads, . . in what far woodlands wild Wandered ye when unworthy love possessed Your Gallus? Not where Pindus is up-piled, Nor where Parnassus' sacred mount, nor where Aonian Aganippe expands . The laurels and the myrtle-copses dim. The pine-encircled mountain, Mænalus, The cold crags of Lycus, weep for him; And Sylvan, crowned with rustic coronals, 20 Came shaking in his speed the budding wands And heavy lilies which he bore: we knew Pan the Arcadian. * * * What madness is this, Gallus? Thy heart's care With willing steps pursues another there. THE FIRST CANZONE OF THE CONVITO. TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN OF DANTE. I. YE who intelligent the third heaven move, Hear the discourse which is within my heart, Which cannot be declared, it seems so new; The Heaven whose course follows your power and art, O gentle creatures that ye are! me drew, And therefore may I dare to speak to you, Even of the life which now I live-and yet I pray that ye will hear me when I cry, And tell of mine own heart this novelty; How the lamenting spirit moans in it, And how a voice there murmurs against her Who came on the refulgence of your sphere. II. ΙΟ A sweet thought, which was once the life within This heavy heart, many a time and oft Went up before our Father's feet, and there It saw a glorious Lady' throned aloft ; And its sweet talk of her my soul did win, So that I said, Thither I too will fare. That thought is fled, and one doth now appear Which tyrannizes me with such fierce stress, 20 That my heart trembles-he may see it leapAnd on another Lady2 bids me keep Mine eyes, and says-Who would have blessed ness 1 Beatrice.-ED. 2 Philosophy.-ED. Let him but look upon that lady's eyes, III. This lowly thought, which once would talk with me Of a bright seraph sitting crowned on high, My spirit wept, the grief is hot even nowAnd said, Alas for me! how swift could flee 30 That piteous thought which did my life console! And the afflicted one questioning Mine eyes, if such a lady saw they never, And why they would . . . I said, beneath those eyes might stand for He whom ever regards must kill with . . . To have known their power stood me in little stead, Those eyes have looked on me, and I am dead. IV. Thou art not dead, but thou hast wanderèd, Thou soul of ours, who thyself dost fret, 40 A spirit of gentle love beside me said; For that fair lady, whom thou dost regret, Hath so transformed the life which thou hast led, Thou scornest it, so worthless art thou made. And see how meek, how pitiful, how staid, Yet courteous, in her majesty she is. And still call thou her woman in thy thought; Her whom, if thou thyself deceivest not, Thou wilt behold decked with such loveliness, That thou wilt cry [Love] only Lord, lo here 50 Thy handmaiden,1 do what thou wilt with her. 1 Soul being feminine in Italian.-ED. V. My song, I fear that thou wilt find but few Of such hard matter dost thou entertain. Whence, if by misadventure chance should bring Thee to base company, as chance may do, Quite unaware of what thou dost contain, I prithee comfort thy sweet self again, My last delight; tell them that they are dull, And bid them own that thou art beautiful. 60 MATILDA GATHERING FLOWERS. FROM THE PURGATORIO OF DANTE, AND earnest to explore within-around Up the green slope, beneath the forest's roof, With slow soft steps leaving the mountain's steep, And sought those inmost labyrinths, motionproof Against the air, that in that stillness deep And solemn, struck upon my forehead bare,The slow soft stroke of a continuous . . In which the leaves tremblingly were Yet were they not so shaken from the rest, With perfect joy received the early day, Such as from bough to bough gathers around The pine forest on bleak Chiassi's shore, When Eolus Scirocco has unbound. My slow steps had already borne me o'er 20 When, lo! a stream whose little waves went by, Bending towards the left through grass that grew Upon its bank, impeded suddenly My going on. Water of purest hue On earth, would appear turbid and impure 29 Dark, dark, yet clear, moved under the obscure I moved not with my feet, but 'mid the glooms Pierced with my charmèd eye contemplating The mighty multitude of fresh May blooms That starred that night, when, even as a thing That suddenly for blank astonishment Charms every sense, and makes all thought take wing, |