No charge I gave you, and no charge could give,
But this, Be mindful of our loves, and live.
Now by the Nine, thofe powers ador'd by me,
And Love, the God that ever waits on thee,
When first I heard (from whom I hardly knew)
That you were fled, and all my joys with yoù,
Like fome fad ftatue, fpeechlefs, pale I ftood,
Grief chill'd my breast, and stopp'd my freezing blood;
No figh to rife, no tear had power to flow,
Fix'd in a stupid lethargy of woe:
But when its way th' impetuous paffion found,
I rend my treffes, and my breast I wound;
I rave, then weep; I curfe, and then complain;
Now fwell to rage, now melt in tears again.
Not fiercer pangs distract the mournful dame,
Whose first-born infant feeds the funeral flame.
Non mandata dedi; neque enim mandata dediffem
Ulla, nifi ut nolles immemor effe mei.
Per tibi, qui nunquam longe difcedat, Amorem,
Perque novem juro, numina nostra, Deas;
Cum mihi nefcio quis, Fugiunt tua gaudia, dixit:
Nec me flere diu, nec potuiffe loqui:
Et lacrymae deerant oculis, et lingua palato :
Aftrictum gelido frigore pectus erat.
Poftquam fe dolor invenit; nec pectora plangi,
Nec puduit fciffis exululare comis :
Non aliter quam fi nati pia mater adempti
Portet ad extructos corpus inane rogos.
My scornful brother with a smile appears,
Infults my woes, and triumphs in my tears,
His hated image ever haunts my eyes ;
And why this grief? thy daughter lives, he cries.
Stung with my love, and furious with despair,
All torn my garments, and my bosom bare,
My woes, thy crimes, I to the world proclaim;
Such inconfiftent things are love and shame!
'Tis thou art all my care and my delight,
My daily longing, and my dream by night:
O night, more pleasing than the brightest day,
When fancy gives what absence takes away,
And, drefs'd in all its vifionary charms,
Reftores my fair deferter to my arms !
Then round your neck in wanton wreaths I twine,
Then you, methinks, as fondly circle mine:
Gaudet et e noftro crefcit moerore Charaxus
Frater; et ante oculos itque reditque meos.
Utque pudenda mei videatur caufa doloris;
Quid dolet haec? certe filia vivit, ait.
Non veniunt in idem pudor atque amor: omne videbat Vulgus; eram lacero pectus aperta sinu.
Tu mihi cura, Phaon; te fomnia noftra reducunt;
Somnia formofo candidiora die.
Illic te invenio, quanquam regionibus abfis;
Sed non longa fatis gaudia fomnus habet.
Saepe tuos noftra cervice onerare lacertos,
Saepe tuae videor fuppofuiffe meos.
A thousand tender words I hear and speak;
A thousand melting kiffes give, and take:
Then fiercer joys, I blush to mention these,
Yet, while I blush, confess how much they please.
But when, with day, the sweet delufions fly,
And all things wake to life and joy, but I,
As if once more forfaken, I complain,
And close my eyes to dream of you again :
Then frantic rife, and like fome Fury rove
Through lonely plains, and through the filent grove,
As if the filent grove, and lonely plains,
That knew my pleasures, could relieve my pains.
I view the Grotto, once the scene of love,
The rocks around, the hanging roofs above,
Blandior interdum; verifque fimillima verba
Eloquor; et vigilant fenfibus ora meis.
Ofcula cognofco; quae tu committere linguae,
Aptaque confuêras accipere, apta dare.
Ulteriora pudet narrare; fed omnia fiunt,
Et juvat, et fine te non libet effe mihi.
At cum fe Titan oftendit, et omnia fecum;
Tam cito me fomnos deftituiffe queror.
Antra nemufque peto, tanquam nemus antraque pro
Confcia deliciis illa fuere tuis.
Illuc mentis inops, ut quam furialis Erichtho
Impulit, in collo crine jacente feror.
Antra vident oculi fcabro pendentia topho,
Quae mihi Mygdonii marmoris inftar erant.
That charm'd me more, with native mofs o'ergrown,
Than Phrygian marble, or the Parian stone.
I find the fhades that veil'd our joys before;
But, Phaon gone, those fhades delight no more.
Here the prefs'd herbs with bending tops betray
Where oft entwin'd in amorous folds we lay;
I kifs that earth which once was prefs'd by you,
And all with tears the withering herbs bedew.
For thee the fading trees appear to mourn,
And birds defer their fongs till thy return:
Night fhades the groves, and all in filence lie,
All but the mournful Philomel and I:
With mournful Philomel I join my strain,
Of Tereus fhe, of Phaon I complain.
Invenio fylvam, quae faepe cubilia nobis
Praebuit, et multa texit opaca coma.
At non invenio dominum fylvaeque, meumque.
Vile folum locus eft: dos erat ille loci.
Agnovi pressas noti mihi cefpitis herbas:
De noftro curvum pondere gramen erat.
Incubui, tetigique locum qua parte fuisti;
Grata prius lacrymas combibit herba meas.
Quinetiam rami pofitis lugere videntur
Frondibus; et nullae dulce queruntur aves.
Sola virum non ulta pie moeftiffuna mater
Concinit Ifmarium Daulias ales Ityn.
Ales Ityn, Sappho defertos cantat amores:
Hactenus, ut media caetera nocte filent.
A fpring there is, whose filver waters show,
Clear as a glafs, the fhining fands below;
A flowery Lotos fpreads its arms above,
Shades all the banks, and feems itself a grove;
Eternal greens the moffy margin grace,
Watch'd by the sylvan genius of the place.
Here as I lay, and fwell'd with tears the flood,
Before my fight a watery Virgin ftood:
She stood and cry'd, "O you that love in vain! "Fly hence, and feek the fair Leucadian main. "There stands a rock, from whose impending steep "Apollo's fane furveys the rolling deep; "There injur'd lovers leaping from above, "Their flames extinguish, and forget to love. "Deucalion once with hopeless fury burn'd, "In vain he lov'd, relentless Pyrrha fcorn'd: "But when from hence he plung'd into the main, 195 "Deucalion fcorn'd, and Pyrrha lov'd in vain.
Eft nitidus, vitroque magis perlucidus omni,
Fons facer; hunc multi numen habere putant.
Quem fupra ramos expandit aquatica lotos,
Una nemus; tenero cefpite terra viret.
Hic ego cum laffos pofuiffem fletibus artus,
Conftitit ante oculos Naïas una meos.
Conftitit, et dixit, "Quoniam non ignibus aequis "Ureris, Ambracias terra petenda tibi.
"Phoebus ab excelfo, quantum patet, afpicit æquor: "Actiacum populi Leucadiumque vocant.
"Hinc fe Deucalion Pyrrhae fuccenfus amore "Mifit, et illaefo corpore preffit aquas.
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