Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, Rendered into English ProseTheocritus
General
Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, Rendered into English Prose
Theocritus
Greek poetry -- Translations into English; Pastoral poetry, Greek -- Translations into English
Lo, silent is the deep, and silent the winds, but never silent the
torment in my breast. Nay, I am all on fire for him that made me,
miserable me, no wife but a shameful thing, a girl no more a maiden.
_My magic wheel_, _draw home to me the man I love_!
Three times do I pour libation, and thrice, my Lady Moon, I speak this
spell:—Be it with a friend that he lingers, be it with a leman he lies,
may he as clean forget them as Theseus, of old, in Dia—so legends
tell—did utterly forget the fair-tressed Ariadne.
_My magic wheel_, _draw home to me the man I love_!
Coltsfoot is an Arcadian weed that maddens, on the hills, the young
stallions and fleet-footed mares. Ah! even as these may I see Delphis;
and to this house of mine, may he speed like a madman, leaving the bright
palaestra.
_My magic wheel_, _draw home to me the man I love_!
This fringe from his cloak Delphis lost; that now I shred and cast into
the cruel flame. Ah, ah, thou torturing Love, why clingest thou to me
like a leech of the fen, and drainest all the black blood from my body?
_My magic wheel_, _draw home to me the man I love_!
Lo, I will crush an eft, and a venomous draught to-morrow I will bring
thee!
But now, Thestylis, take these magic herbs and secretly smear the juice
on the jambs of his gate (whereat, even now, my heart is captive, though
nothing he recks of me), and spit and whisper, ‘’Tis the bones of Delphis
that I smear.’
_My magic wheel_, _draw home to me the man I love_!
And now that I am alone, whence shall I begin to bewail my love? Whence
shall I take up the tale: who brought on me this sorrow? The
maiden-bearer of the mystic vessel came our way, Anaxo, daughter of
Eubulus, to the grove of Artemis; and behold, she had many other wild
beasts paraded for that time, in the sacred show, and among them a
lioness.
_Bethink thee of my love_, _and whence it came_, _my Lady Moon_!
And the Thracian servant of Theucharidas,—my nurse that is but lately
dead, and who then dwelt at our doors,—besought me and implored me to
come and see the show. And I went with her, wretched woman that I am,
clad about in a fair and sweeping linen stole, over which I had thrown
the holiday dress of Clearista.
_Bethink thee of my love_, _and whence it came_, _my Lady Moon_!
Lo! I was now come to the mid-point of the highway, near the dwelling of
Lycon, and there I saw Delphis and Eudamippus walking together. Their
beards were more golden than the golden flower of the ivy; their breasts
(they coming fresh from the glorious wrestler’s toil) were brighter of
sheen than thyself Selene!
_Bethink thee of my love_, _and whence it came_, _my Lady Moon_!
Even as I looked I loved, loved madly, and all my heart was wounded, woe
is me, and my beauty began to wane. No more heed took I of that show,
and how I came home I know not; but some parching fever utterly overthrew
me, and I lay a-bed ten days and ten nights.
_Bethink thee of my love_, _and whence it came_, _my Lady Moon_!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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