Till all the region with her wrongs o'erflows。
No love; no new desire; constrained his soul:
By snow…bound Tanais and the icy north;
Far steppes to frost Rhipaean forever wed;
Alone he wandered; lost Eurydice
Lamenting; and the gifts of Dis ungiven。
Scorned by which tribute the Ciconian dames;
Amid their awful Bacchanalian rites
And midnight revellings; tore him limb from limb;
And strewed his fragments over the wide fields。
Then too; even then; what time the Hebrus stream;
Oeagrian Hebrus; down mid…current rolled;
Rent from the marble neck; his drifting head;
The death…chilled tongue found yet a voice to cry
'Eurydice! ah! poor Eurydice!'
With parting breath he called her; and the banks
From the broad stream caught up 'Eurydice!'〃
So Proteus ending plunged into the deep;
And; where he plunged; beneath the eddying whirl
Churned into foam the water; and was gone;
But not Cyrene; who unquestioned thus
Bespake the trembling listener: 〃Nay; my son;
From that sad bosom thou mayst banish care:
Hence came that plague of sickness; hence the nymphs;
With whom in the tall woods the dance she wove;
Wrought on thy bees; alas! this deadly bane。
Bend thou before the Dell…nymphs; gracious powers:
Bring gifts; and sue for pardon: they will grant
Peace to thine asking; and an end of wrath。
But how to approach them will I first unfold…
Four chosen bulls of peerless form and bulk;
That browse to…day the green Lycaean heights;
Pick from thy herds; as many kine to match;
Whose necks the yoke pressed never: then for these
Build up four altars by the lofty fanes;
And from their throats let gush the victims' blood;
And in the greenwood leave their bodies lone。
Then; when the ninth dawn hath displayed its beams;
To Orpheus shalt thou send his funeral dues;
Poppies of Lethe; and let slay a sheep
Coal…black; then seek the grove again; and soon
For pardon found adore Eurydice
With a slain calf for victim。〃
No delay:
The self…same hour he hies him forth to do
His mother's bidding: to the shrine he came;
The appointed altars reared; and thither led
Four chosen bulls of peerless form and bulk;
With kine to match; that never yoke had known;
Then; when the ninth dawn had led in the day;
To Orpheus sent his funeral dues; and sought
The grove once more。 But sudden; strange to tell
A portent they espy: through the oxen's flesh;
Waxed soft in dissolution; hark! there hum
Bees from the belly; the rent ribs overboil
In endless clouds they spread them; till at last
On yon tree…top together fused they cling;
And drop their cluster from the bending boughs。
So sang I of the tilth of furrowed fields;
Of flocks and trees; while Caesar's majesty
Launched forth the levin…bolts of war by deep
Euphrates; and bare rule o'er willing folk
Though vanquished; and essayed the heights of heaven。
I Virgil then; of sweet Parthenope
The nursling; wooed the flowery walks of peace
Inglorious; who erst trilled for shepherd…wights
The wanton ditty; and sang in saucy youth
Thee; Tityrus; 'neath the spreading beech tree's shade。
…THE END…
。
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