Oh, how I have pined in barren exile! Like a withered flower In the tin box of a botanist, My heart lay in my breast. I feel as if all winter I had sat, A sick man, in a dark, sick room, Which now I suddenly leave. And dazzlingly shines down upon me The emerald spring, the sunshine-awakened spring, And the white-blossomed trees are rustling; And the young flowers look at me, With their many-colored, fragrant eyes. And there is an aroma, and a murmuring, and a breathing and a laughter, And in the blue sky the little birds are singing, Thalatta! Thalatta! Thou valiant, retreating heart, How oft, how bitter oft Did the fair barbarians of the North press thee hard! From their large victorious eyes They darted burning shafts. With crooked, polished words, They threatened to cleave my breast. With sharp-pointed missives they shattered My poor, stunned brain. In vain I held up against them my shield, The arrows whizzed, the strokes cracked, And from the fair barbarians of the North I was pressed even unto the sea. And now with deep, free breath, I hail the sea, The dear, redeeming sea-- Thalatta! Thalatta! II. TEMPEST. Gloomy lowers the tempest over the sea, And through the black wall of cloud Is unsheathed the jagged lightning, Swift outflashing, and swift-vanishing, Like a jest from the brain of Chronos. Over the barren, billowy water, Far away rolls the thunder, And up leap the white water-steeds, Which Boreas himself begot Out of the graceful mare of Erichthon, And the sea-birds flutter around, Like the shadowy dead on the Styx, Whom Charon repels from his nocturnal boat. Poor, merry, little vessel, Dancing yonder the most wretched of dances! Eolus sends it his liveliest comrades, Who wildly play to the jolliest measures; One pipes his horn, another blows, A third scrapes his growling bass-viol. And the uncertain sailor stands at the rudder, And constantly gazes at the compass, The trembling soul of the ship; And he raises his hands in supplication to Heaven-- "Oh, save me, Castor, gigantic hero! And thou conquering wrestler, Pollux." III. WRECKED.