THE SACRIFICEUpon a cushion softMy limbs I place,My every garment doffedFor deeper grace;From burning doves embalmedIn baccharis,The scented fumes have calmedMe like a kiss.Beyond the phallic shrineThat tripods light,I pledge with holy wineAn image white;Anadyomene,Than foam more fair,When from the ravished seaShe rose to air.Daughter of God, acceptThese gifts of mine!Last night my body sleptIn arms divine.These sated lips and eyesThat erstwhile sued,Accord this sacrificeIn gratitude.
LEDAOnce on a timeThey say that Leda foundBeneath the thymeAn egg upon the ground;And yet the swanShe fondled long agoWas whiter thanIts shell of peeping snow.
AMŒBEUM: ALCÆUS AND SAPPHOALCUSÆUSViolet-weaving Sappho, pure and lovely,Softly-smiling Sappho, I would utterSomething that my secret hope has cherished,Did no painful sense of shame deter me.SAPPHOHad the impulse of thy heart been honest,It had urged no evil supplication;Shame had not abashed thy eyes before me,And thy words had done thee no dishonor.ALCÆUSSoftly-smiling Sappho, longing bids meTell thee all that in my heart lies hidden.SAPPHOHave no fear, Alcæus, to offend me!Thy emotion stirs my heart to pity.ALCÆUSI desire thee, violet-weaving Sappho!Love thee madly, softly-smiling Sappho!SAPPHOHush, Alcæus! thou must choose a youngerComrade for thy couch, for I would neverJoin thy years to mine—the Gods forbid it—Youth and ardent fire to age and ashes.
THE LOVE OF SELENEAcross the still sea's moonlit waveSelene cameSoftly to seek the Latmian cave,Her breast aflameWith secret passion's ruthless throe,Her scruples done,And burning with desire to knowEndymion.
THE CRETAN DANCEAs the moon in all her splendorSlowly rose above the forest,Silent stood the Cretan womenRound the altar.Girdled close their clinging tunics,Made of some transparent fabric,Traced the every curve and lissomeOf their bodies.With revering eyes upliftedTo the round and rising planet,Soon its drifting beams of silverLit their faces.Soft and clear its sphere effulgent,Full defined above the treetops,Steeped in pale unearthly glamorAll the landscape.When the argent glimmer restedOn the altar piled with garlands,And its glow unveiled the marbleAphrodite;Linking hands, the Cretan womenMoving gracefully with metricSteps began to dance a measureTo the Goddess.All so light their feet unsandalledPressed the velvet grass in treading,That they scarcely bruised its tenderBlooming verdure.Slowly turning in a circleTo the east, their voices chantedIn a plaintive note the sacredIthyphallics;Then they paused, their steps retracingToward the west, and answered stropheBy antistrophe with choricTones accordant;With the aftersong epodic,Standing all before the altar,Lo! the hymn in praise of PaphosWas completed.
TO ALCÆUSCountless are the cups thou drainestIn thy hymns to Dionysos,O Alcæus!War and wine alone thou singest;—Whereforenot of Aphrodite,O Alcæus!Spacious halls are thine where manyTrophies hang in Ares' honor,O Alcæus!Brazen shields and shining helmets,Plates of brass, Chalcidian broad-swords,O Alcæus!When with winter roars the ThracianNorth wind through the leafless forest,O Alcæus!Thou dost heap the fire and banishCare with many a tawny goblet,O Alcæus!
HYPORCHEMEThus contend the maidensIn the cretic dance,Rosy arms that glisten,Eyes that glance;Cheeks as fair as blossoms,Parted lips that glow,With their honeyed voicesChanting low;With their plastic bodiesSwaying to the flute,Moving with the musicNever mute;Graceful the orchestricFigures they unfold,While the vesper heavenTurns to gold.Turns to gold.
LARICHUSWhile charming maids plait garlands for thy brows,Larichus, bring the pledge for this carouseLike lovely Ganymede, brother mine,And cool from thy patera pour the wine.Thy slender limbs have all a Satyr's grace,Hylas, the Wood-God, dimples in thy face;These maids of mine, beloved and loving me,My dreams have made thy Nymphs to sport with thee.I heard fair Mitylene's plaudits ceaseO'er Lykas, Menon and Dinnomenes;And hail thy beauty worthy of the prize,Cupbearer to the council of the wise.No noble youth the prytaneum holds,Whose graceful form the purple tunic foldsCan match with thee, when on affairs of stateAll Lesbos gathers with the wise and great.
SPRINGCome, shell divine, be vocal now for me,As when the Hebrus river and the seaTo Lesbos bore, on waves harmonious,The head and golden lyre of Orpheus.Calliope, queen of the tuneful throng,Descend and be the Muse of melic song;For through my frame life's tides renewing bringThe glad vein-warming vigor of the spring.The skies that dome the earth with far blue fireMake the wide land one temple of desire;—Just now across my cheek I felt a God,In the enraptured breeze, pass zephyr-shod.Was that Pan's flute, O Atthis, that we heard,Or the soft love-note of a woodland bird?That flame a scarlet wing that skimmed the stream,Or the red flash of our impassioned dream?Ah, soon again we two shall gather fairGarlands of dill and rose to deck our bareWhite arms that cling, white breast that burns to breast,When the long night of love shall banish rest.
PRELUDEDeftly on my littleSeven-stringed barbitos,Now to please my girl friendsSongs I set to music.Maidens fair, companionsOf the Muses, neverToward you shall my feelingsUndergo a change.Chanted in a plaintiveOld Ionic measure,All the songs I give youAre the songs of love.
ANDROMEDAWhat bucolic maidenNow thy heart bewitches,O my AndromedaOf the strange amours?Round her awkward anklesShe has not the faintestSense of art to draw herLong ungraceful tunic.Yet she surely makes thee,O my Andromeda,For thy sweet unlawfulLove a fair requital.Joy and praise attend thee,In thy keen perceptiveTaste for beauty, daughterOf Polyanax!Of Polyanax!
EUNEICAAphrodite's handmaid,Bright as gold thou earnest,Tender woven garlandsRound thy tender neck;Sweet as soft Persuasion,Lissome as the Graces,Shy Euneica, lovelyGirl from Salamis.Slender thou as Syrinx,As the waving reed-nymph,Once by Pan, the god ofSummer winds, deflowered.On thy lips whose quiverSeems to plead for pity,Mine shall rest and lingerLike the mouth of PanOn the mouth of Syrinx,When his breath that filled herBlew through all her bodyMusic of his love.
GORGOGorgo, I am wearyOf thy love's insistence,Thou to me appearestAn ill-favored child.Though I am than GelloFonder still of virgins,Toward thee I have neverFelt the least desire.Yesternight I knew notWhat to do, for pityMoved my bosom deeply,Seeing thee implore.Harassed by alternateYielding and refusal,I was half persuadedThen to grant thy prayer.At my door thy presenceLingers like a shadow;Vain wouldst thou reproach meWith appealing eyes.Dost thou think by constantProofs of lasting passion,Slowly my obdurateWill to wear away?Gorgo, I am wearyOf thy love's insistence,And my strength exhaustedGrants thy wish at last.
MNASIDICASet, O Dica, garlands on thy lovelyGlinting mass of fine and golden tresses,Sprays of dill with fingers soft entwiningWhile I stand apart to better judge.Those who have fair wreaths about the forehead,Breathing brentheian odor to the senses,Ever first find favor with the GracesWho from wreathless suppliants turn away.Dica, Mnasidica, thou art shapelyWith the flowing curves of Aphrodite;Eyes the color of her azure oceanWashing wide on Cyprus' languid shore.In thy every movement grace unconsciousSways the rhythmic poem of thy body,Charming with elusive undulationLike a splendid lily in the wind.As I stand apart to judge the betterFair effects that roses add to beauty,All thy rays of loveliness concenteredSun me till I swoon with swift desire.
TELESIPPASleep thou in the bosomOf thy tender girl friend,Telesippa, gentleMaiden from Miletus.Like twin petals shylyClosing to the darkness,Dewy on your droopingLids shall fall her kisses.While her arms enfold you,On your drowsy sensesShall her soft caressesSeal delicious languor.Warm from her desirefulHeart the flush of passionOn your cheek unconscious,With her sighs shall deepen.All the long sweet night-time,Sleepless while you slumber,She shall lie and quiverWith her love's mad longing.
GYRINNONow the silver crescentOf the moon has vanished,With the golden PleiadsDrifting down the west.It is after midnightAnd the time is passing,Hours we pledged to passionAnd I sleep alone.Anger ill becomes thee,Tender-souled Gyrinno,Shapelier is DicaBut less loved by me.Art thou still relentless,Wilful one, annullingAll thy protestationsIn the fervid past?Can it, O Charites,Be thou hast forgotten?Dost thou love another,Even now, perchance?Ah, my tears are falling,Yet in my despairingMood I lie and listenFor thy furtive step;For the lightest rustleOf thy flowing garment,For thy sweet and pantingWhisper at the door.Now the moon has vanishedWith the golden Pleiads;It is after midnightAnd I sleep alone.
MEGARAThou burnest us, Megara,With thy passions wild;Bringing from PanormusSuch unbridled fires.Thou burnest us, a suppleFlow of tortured flame,Raging, biting, searing,Lawless of the will.Thou burnest us, Megara,Love must know reserve,Curbing power to keep itKeener for restraint.
ERINNAHaughtier than thou, O fair Erinna,I have never met with any maiden.Such a careless scorn as thine for passionProves a dire affront to Aphrodite.When with soft desire she wounds thy bosom,Thou shalt know love's pain and doubly suffer.Keep the gifts I gave thee, long rejected;Fabrics for thy lap from far Phocea,Babylonian unguents, scented sandals,And the costly mitra for thy tresses;Tripods worked in brass to flank the altarWith the ivory figure of the Goddess;Where the sacrificial fumes from sacredFlames shall rise to gladden and appease her,In the hour when at her call thy fervidBreast and mouth to mine shall be relinquished.
GONGYLAIt was when the sunsetBurned with saffron fire,And Apollo's coursersTurned below the hills,That on Mitylene'sMarble bridge we met,Gongyla, thou goldenMaid of Colophon.Like the breath of morningOr a breeze from sea,Fresh thy beauty smote me,Virile of the north.Startled by thy vision,Transports half divineFlooded veins and bosom,Shook me with desire.Soon the kinder sunglowOf Æolic landsMelted all the futileSnows about thy heart.
DAMOPHYLACold of heart and strangelyUninclined to passion,Wisdom's vigil leaves thee,Proud Damophyla.Sapphics thou hast written,Verses in my metre,With a skill surpassingIn the melic art.Love's superb enchantmentThou art fain to banish,Like the virgin HuntressLong by thee adored.Molded by thy tunic,Every arching contourOf her chaste and nobleForm I dream to see;Even view her steppingFrom the leafy covertDown the dawn-white valley,Stately as a stag.Long I sued but found theeDeaf to all entreaty,Till one summer twilightListless in the heat;Soothed by slumber's languor,And my low monodicVoice that hymned a paeanIn the praise of love;Loth to yield yet vanquished,As I knelt beside thee,All thy long resistanceTo my kiss succumbed.
ANAGORAAnagora, fairestSpoil of fateful battle,Babylonian templesKnew thy luring song.Wrested from barbaricCaptors for thy beauty,Thou wert made a priestessAt Mylitta's shrine.Once these flexile fingersClasped in mine so closely,Neath the temple's archesThrummed the tabor soft.Thou hast taught me secretsOf the cryptic chambers,How the zonahs worshipIn the burning East;Raptures that my wildestDreaming never pictured,Arts of love that charmed me,Subtle, new and strange.Hearken to my earnestPrayer, O Aphrodite!May the night be doubledNow for our delight.$/
PHILOMELPhilomel in my garden,Messenger sweet of springtide,From the bough of the olive tree utterTidings ecstatic.Linger long on thy oldenNote as in days remembered;Ere the Boatman that knew AphroditeRavished my vision.Fatal glamor of beauty,Beauty of Gods made mortal;Ah, before its delight I am everFearful of heaven.Spring in breeze and the blossom,Grasses and leaves and odors,On my heart with the breath of a vanishedApril is shaken;Shaken with thrill and regret ofLost caresses and kisses;Anactoria's memory, AtthisNever forgotten.Philomel in my garden,Messenger sweet of springtide,From the bough of the olive tree utterTidings ecstatic.
GOLDEN PULSEGolden pulse grew on the shore,Ferns along the hill,And the red cliff roses boreBees to drink their fill;Bees that from the meadows bringWine of melilot,Honey-sups on golden wingTo the garden grot.But to me, neglected flower,Phaon will not see,Passion brings no crowning hour,Honey nor the bee.
THE SWALLOWDaughter of Pandion, lovelySwallow that veers at my window,Swift on the flood of the sunshineDarting thy shadow;What is thy innocent purpose,Why dost thou hover and haunt me?Is it a kinship of sorrowBrings thee anear me?Must thou forever be tongueless,Flying in fear of Tereus?Must he for Itys pursue thee,Changed to a lapwing?Tireless of pinion and neverResting on bush or the branches,Close to the earth, up the azure,Over the treetops;After thy wing in its madnessFollows my glance, as a flittingChild on the track of its motherHastens in silence.Daughter of Pandion, lovelySwallow that veers at my window,Hast thou a message from CyprusTelling of Phaon?
TIDINGSShe wrapped herself in linen woven close,Stuffs delicate and texture-fine as thoseThe dark Nile traders for our barteringFrom Egypt, Crete and far Phocea bring.Love lent her feet the wings of winds to reach(Whose steps stir not the shingle of the beach)My marble court and, breathless, bid me knowMy lover's sails across the harbor blow.He seemed to her, as to himself he seems,Like some bright God long treasured in her dreams;She saw him standing at his galley's prow—My Phaon, mine, in Mitylene now!
HESPERUSHesperus shinesLow on the eastern wave,Off toward the Asian shore;Over faint linesWhose grays and purples paveWhere seas night-calmed adore.Fair vesper fire,Fairest of stars, the lightBenign of secret bliss;Star of desire,Bringing to me with nightDreams and my Phaon's kiss.
DAWNJust now the golden-sandalled DawnPeered through the lattice of my room;Why must thou fare so soon, my Phaon?Last night I met thee at the shore,A thousand hues were in the sky;The breeze from Cyprus blew, my Phaon!I drew, to lave thy heated brow,My kerchief dripping from the sea;Why hadst thou sailed so far, my Phaon?Far up the narrow mountain pathsWe heard the shepherds fluting home;Like some white God thou seemed, my Phaon!And through the olive trees we sawThe twinkle of my vesper lamp;Wilt kiss me now as then, my Phaon?Nay, loosen not with gentle forceThe clasp of my restraining arms;I will not let thee go, my Phaon!See, deftly in my trailing robeI spring and draw the lattice close;Is it not night again, my Phaon?
THE FAREWELLBeloved, stand face to face,And, lifting lids, disclose to me the grace,The Paphic fire that lingers yet and liesReflected in thy eyes.Phaon, my sole beloved,Stand not to my mad passion all unmoved;O let, ere thou to far Panormus sail,One hour of love prevail.Dear ingrate, come and letThy breath like odor from a cassolet,Thy smile, the clinging touch of lips and heartAnoint me, ere we part.Phaon, I yearn and seekBut thee alone; and what I feel must speakIn all these fond and wilful ways of mine,O mortal, made divine!My girl friends now no moreHang their sweet gifts of garlands at my door;Dear maids, with all your vanished emperyYe now are naught to me.Phaon, thy galley ridesWithin the harbor's mouth and waits the tidesAnd favoring winds, far to the west to flyAnd leave me here to die.The brawny rowers leanTo bend long-stroking oars; and changing sceneAnd fairer loves than mine shall soon effaceThis last divine embrace.Phaon, the lifting breeze!See, at thy feet I kneel and clasp thy knees!Go not, go not! O hear my sobbing prayer,And yield to my despair!
DARK-EYED SLEEPDark-eyed Sleep, child of Night,Come in thy shadow garment to my couch,And with thy soothing touch,Cool as the vesper breeze,Grant that I may forget;Bestow condign release,A taste of rest that comes with endless sleep;Lure off the haunting dreams,The dire EumenidesThat torture my repose.For I would live a spaceThough Phaon has forsaken me, nor yetBe found on shadow fieldsAmong the lilies tallOf pale Persephone.
THE CLIFF OF LEUCASAfar-seen cliffStands in the western seaToward Cephallenian lands.Apollo's temple crownsIts whitened crest,And at its baseThe waves eternal beat.Its leap has powerTo cure the pangsOf unrequited love.Thither pale lovers goWith anguished heartsTo dare the deep and quenchLove's slow consuming flame.Urged to the edgeBy maddening desire,I, too, shall fling myselfImploring thee,Apollo, lord and king!Into the chillEmbraces of the sea,Less cold than thine, O Phaon,I shall fall—Fall with the flutter of a wounded dove;And I shall riseIndifferent forever to love's dream,Or find belowThe sea's eternal voice,Eternal peace.
THE DUST OF TIMASThis is the dust of Timas! Here inurnedRest the dear ashes where so late had burnedHer spirit's flame. She perished, gentle maid,Before her bridal day and now a shade,Silent and sad, she evermore must beIn the dark chamber of Persephone.When life had faded with the flower and leaf,Each girl friend sweet, in token of her grief,Resigned her severed locks with bended head,Beauty's fair tribute to the lovely dead.
THE PRIESTESS OF ARTEMISMaidens, that pass my tomb with laughter sweet,A voice unresting echoes at your feet;Pause, and if any would my story seek,Dumb as I am, these graven words will speak;Once in the vanished years it chanced to pleaseArista, daughter of Hermocleides,To dedicate my life in virgin blissTo thee, revered of women, Artemis!O Goddess, deign to bless my grandsire's line,For Saon was a temple priest of thine;And grant, O Queen, in thy benefic grace,Unending fame and fortune to his race.
PELAGONAbove the lowly grave of Pelagon,Ill-fated fisher lad, Meniscus' son,His father placed as sign of storm and strifeThe weel and oar, memorial of his life.
SAPPHICSTHE MUSESMUSAGETESLOVE'S BANQUETMOON AND STARSODE TO ANACTORIATHE ROSEODE TO APHRODITESUMMERTHE GARDEN OF THE NYMPHSAPHRODITE'S DOVESANACREON'S SONGTHE DAUGHTER OF CYPRUSTHE DISTAFFTHE SLEEP WINDTHE REPROACHLONG AGOEPITHALAMIA: THRENODESHYMENAIOSBRIDAL SONGEPITHALAMIUMPIERIA'S ROSELAMENT FOR ADONISTHE STRICKEN FLOWERDEATHPERSEPHONEPARTHENEIA: DIDAKTIKAMAIDENHOODEVER MAIDENCLËISASPIRATIONHERO, OF GYARACOURAGETHE BOAST OF ARESGOLDGNOMICSPRIDELETO AND NIOBETHE DYEEROTIKA: DITHYRAMBSHYMN TO PAPHIAEROSPASSIONAPHRODITE'S PRAISETHE FIRST KISSODE TO ATTHISCOMPARISONTHE SACRIFICELEDAAMŒBEUM: ALCÆUS AND SAPPHOTHE LOVE OF SELENETHE CRETAN DANCETO ALCÆUSHYPORCHEMELARICHUSSPRINGGIRL FRIENDSPRELUDEANDROMEDAEUNEICAGORGOMNASIDICATELESIPPAGYRINNOMEGARAERINNAGONGYLADAMOPHYLAANAGORAPHAONPHILOMELGOLDEN PULSETHE SWALLOWTIDINGSHESPERUSDAWNTHE FAREWELLDARK-EYED SLEEPTHE CLIFF OF LEUCASEPIGRAMSTHE DUST OF TIMASTHE PRIESTESS OF ARTEMISPELAGON