Power to comfort and aid all who in you may confide. Translation of E. A. Bowring. [Pg 6448] ERGO BIBAMUS! For a praiseworthy object we're now gathered here, So, brethren, sing Ergo bibamus! Though talk may be hushed, yet the glasses ring clear: Remember then, Ergo bibamus! In truth 'tis an old, 'tis an excellent word; With its sound so befitting each bosom is stirred, And an echo the festal hall filling is heard, A glorious Ergo bibamus! I saw mine own love in her beauty so rare, And bethought me of Ergo bibamus; So I gently approached, and she let me stand there, While I helped myself, thinking, Bibamus! And when she's appeared, and will clasp you and kiss, Or when those embraces and kisses ye miss, Take refuge, till found is some worthier bliss, In the comforting Ergo bibamus! I am called by my fate far away from each friend; Ye loved ones, then, Ergo bibamus! With wallet light-laden from hence I must wend, So double our Ergo bibamus! Whatever to his treasure the niggard may add, Yet regard for the joyous will ever be had, For gladness lends ever its charms to the glad, So, brethren, sing: Ergo bibamus! And what shall we say of to-day as it flies? I thought but of Ergo bibamus! 'Tis one of those truly that seldom arise, So again and again sing Bibamus! For joy through a wide-open portal it guides, Bright glitter the clouds as the curtain divides, And a form, a divine one, to greet us in glides, While we thunder our Ergo bibamus. Translation of E. A. Bowring. [Pg 6449] ALEXIS AND DORA Farther and farther away, alas! at each moment the vessel Hastens, as onward it glides, cleaving the foam-covered flood! Long is the track plowed up by the keel where dolphins are sporting, Following fast in its rear, while it seems flying pursuit. All forebodes a prosperous voyage; the sailor with calmness Leans 'gainst the sail, which alone all that is needed performs. Forward presses the heart of each seaman, like colors and streamers; Backward one only is seen, mournfully fixed near the mast, While on the blue-tinged mountains, which fast are receding, he gazeth, And as they sink in the sea, joy from his bosom departs. Vanished from thee, too, O Dora, is now the vessel that robs thee Of thine Alexis, thy friend,—ah, thy betrothèd as well! Thou, too, art after me gazing in vain. Our hearts are still throbbing, Though for each other, yet ah! 'gainst one another no more. O thou single moment, wherein I found life! thou outweighest Every day which had else coldly from memory fled. 'Twas in that moment alone, the last, that upon me descended Life such as deities grant, though thou perceivèdst it not. Phœbus, in vain with thy rays dost thou clothe the ether in glory: Thine all-brightening day hateful alone is to me. Into myself I retreat for shelter, and there in the silence Strive to recover the time when she appeared with each day.