Of destiny were vanquished by a few
Free, generous spirits! 'Tis belief in me

That I can hear your plants, your rocks, your sea,
Your mountains murmur to the passer-by

How these same shores by the invincible band

Were strewn with bodies which to Greece were vowed!

Then Xerxes o'er the Hellespont did fly,

Fierce coward he, henceforward doomed to bear

The scornful jests of all posterity.

The mountain called Anthela, yonder where

The sacred host died to mortality,

Simonides ascended, with his eyes

Yearning out over earth and sea and skies.

And both his cheeks were sprinkled with his tears, His heart beat fast, his footsteps went astray; He took the lyre in hand: Blessed are you

Who bared your bosoms to the foeman's spears
For love of her who gave you light of day!

You whom Greece honours and the whole world, too!
What wondrous love your youthful spirits drew

To arms and peril and a bitter last?

O sons, how was it that your parting hour
Appeared so joyously, whence you had power
With lips of laughter to go running past
Towards so mournful and so rude an essay?
Each went as if to dance and not to die,

As if to feast magnificently; nay,

Death's surge and shades of Tartarus were nigh;

quando sull' aspro lito

senza baci moriste e senza pianto.

Ma non senza de' Persi orrida pena ed immortale angoscia.

Come lion di tori entro una mandra

or salta a quello in tergo e sì gli scava con le zanne la schiena,

or questo fianco addenta or quella coscia ; tal fra le perse torme infurïava

l'ira de' greci petti e la virtute. Ve' cavalli supini e cavalieri ; vedi intralciare ai vinti

la fuga i carri e le tende cadute, e correr fra' primieri,

pallido e scapigliato, esso tiranno; ve' come infusi e tinti

del barbarico sangue i greci eroi, cagione ai Persi d' infinito affanno, a poco a poco vinti dalle piaghe,

l' un sopra l'altro cade. Oh viva, Oh viva! beatissimi voi

mentre nel mondo si favelli o scriva.

Prima divelte, in mar precipitando, spente nell' imo strideran le stelle, che la memoria e il vostro

amor trascorra o scemi.

La vostra tomba è un' ara; e qua mostrando

verran le madri ai parvoli le belle

orme del vostro sangue. Ecco io mi prostro,

o benedetti, al suolo,

e bacio questi sassi e queste zolle,

che fien lodate e chiare eternamente

dall' uno all' altro polo.

Deh foss' io pur con voi qui sotto, e molle

Bereft of spouse and child in that drear place
You died, nor tears nor kisses on your face.
Yet not before the Persians suffered pangs
Of bitter punishment and endless woe.
As in a drove of bulls a lion may

Leap on one's back and rend it with his fangs,
Biting a flank here, there a haunch; even so,
Valour and ire in Grecian breasts that lay,
Amid the Persian hordes held furious sway.
Of horses and of riders see the fall;

The vanquished see entangled in their flight
By shattered tents and chariots; see the white,
Dishevelled tyrant run before them all!

In savage blood how steeped and stained are they,
The Grecian heroes whence the Persians won
Deathless affliction; see, they fall away
Little by little, by their wounds undone !
O live for ever, blessed in your birth

So long as speech and script endure on earth!
The stars uprooted shall precipitate
Into the sea, and shrieking in the abyss
Be quenched before your love and memory
Perish or fade! Hither to contemplate
Your tomb, that even as an altar is,
Mothers will bring their little ones and see
Your precious bloodstains. Lo, I prostrate me,
O Blessed, on this earth, and I embrace
These rocks, this sod: O may their glory be
Lauded from pole to pole eternally!

fosse del sangue mio quest' alma terra. Che se il fato è diverso, e non consente ch' io per la Grecia i moribondi lumi chiuda prostrato in guerra, così la vereconda

fama del vostro vate appo i futuri possa, volendo i numi,

tanto durar quanto la vostra duri.”

EMPRE caro mi fu quest' ermo colle,

e questa siepe, che da tanta parte dell' ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude. ma sedendo e mirando, interminati spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani silenzi, e profondissima quïete io nel pensier mi fingo; ove per poco il cor non si spaura. E come il vento odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello infinito silenzio a questa voce vo comparando e mi sovvien l' eterno, e le morte stagioni, e la presente

e viva, e il suon di lei. Così tra questa immensità s' annega il pensier mio : e il naufragar m' è dolce in questo mare.

A donzelletta vien dalla campagna,
in sul calar del sole,

LA

col suo fascio dell' erba; e reca in mano un mazzolin di rose e di vïole,

Would I were buried with you in this place,

And would for this sweet earth my blood might flow: Should adverse fate forbid my dying eyes

To close for Greece, I laid in battle low,

Then may your poet's modest fame arise
Among posterity, O may it still

Endure with yours, so be it the Gods will!"

I

ALWAYS loved this solitary hill,

This hedge as well, which takes so large a share
Of the far-flung horizon from my view;
But seated here, in contemplation lost,
My thought discovers vaster space beyond
Supernal silence and unfathomed peace;
Almost I am afraid; then, since I hear
The murmur of the wind among the leaves,
I match that infinite calm unto this sound
And with my mind embrace eternity,
The vivid, speaking present and dead past;
In such immensity my spirit drowns,
And sweet to me is shipwreck in this sea.

ROM the fields the country lass
Homewards with her load of grass

At the sunset wends her way;
In her hands a wild nosegay