αυγάς, Στεθεα γυμνώσαις, και με πνέοντα λάβοις. Είθε ροδον γενομην ὑποπορφυρον, όφρα με χερσιν Αραμένη, κομίσαις στεθεσι χιονέοις. Ειθε κρινον γενομην λευκοχροον, οφρα με χερσιν Αραμένη, μαλλον της χροτιης κύρεσης. I wish I could like zephyr steal To wanton o'er thy mazy vest; And thou would'st ope thy bosom veil, And take me panting to thy breast! I wish I might a rosebud grow, And thou would'st cull me from the bower, And place me on that breast of snow, Where I should bloom, a wintry flower! I wish I were the lily's leaf, To fade upon that bosom warm; There I should wither, pale and brief, The trophy of thy fairer form! Allow me to add, that Plato has expressed as fanciful a wish in a distich preserved by Laertius: Αστερας εισαθρεις, αστηρ εμος" είθε γενοίμην Ουρανος ὡς πολλοις όμμασιν εις σε βλέτω. TO STELLA. Why dost thou gaze upon the sky? To wonder on thy beauties here! Apuleius quotes this epigram of the divine philosopher to justify himself for his verses on ODE XXIII. I OFTEN wish this languid lyre, Critias and Charinus. See his Apology, where he also adduces the example of Anacreon: Fecere Graecos Teius quidam, etc. ete. tamen et alii talia, et si vos ignoratis, apud This was a riband, or band, called by the wore for the purpose of restraining the exube Romans fascia and strophium, which the women rance of the bosom.-Vide Polluc. Onomast. Thus Martial: Fascia crescentes dominæ compesce papillas. The women of Greece not only wore this zone, but condemned themselves to fasting, and made use of certain drugs and powders for the same purpose. To these expedients they were comof compressing the waist into a very narrow compelled, in consequence of their inelegant fashion pass, which necessarily caused an excessive tumidity in the bosom.-See Dioscorides, lib. v. 2 The sophist Philostratus, in one of his loveletters, has borrowed this thought: "Oh lovely feet! oh excellent beauty! oh! thrice happy and blessed should I be, if you would but tread on me! In Shakspeare, Romeo desires to be a glove: Oh that I were a glove upon that hand, And, in his Passionate Pilgrim, we meet with an idea somewhat like that of the thirteenth line: He, spying her, bounced in, where as he stood, Oh Jove quoth she, why was not I a flood? 3 The word arripovet, in the original, may imply that kind of musical dialogue practised by the ancients, in which the lyre was made to re spond to the questions proposed by the singer. ODE XXIV.1 To all that breathe the airs of heaven, Some boon of strength has Nature given. When the majestic bull was born, She fenced his brow with wreathed horn. She armed the courser's foot of air, She gave the lion fangs of terror, mind !2 And had she no surpassing treasure gave thee beauty-blush of fire, That bids the flames of war retire! Woman! be fair, we must adore thee; Smile, and a world is weak before thee !3 Henry Stephens has imitated the idea of this ode in the following lines of one of his poems :Provida dat cunctis Natura animantibus arma, Et sua fœmineum possidet arma genus, Ungulaque ut defendit equum, atque ut cornua taurum, Armata est forma fœmina pulchra suâ. And the same thought occurs in those lines, spoken by Corisca in Pastor Fido: Così noi la bellezza Ch' è vertu nostra cosí propria, come El'ingegno de l'huomo. The lion boasts his savage powers, Peculiar boon, by Heaven assigned! 2 In my first attempt to translate this ode, I had interpreted Opornua, with Baxter and Barnes, as implying courage and military virtue; but I do not think that the gallantry of the idea suffers by the import which I have now given to it. For why need we consider this possession of wisdom as exclusive? and in truth, as the design of Anacreon is to estimate the treasure of beauty, above all the rest which Nature has distributed, it is perhaps even refining upon the delicacy of the compliment, to prefer the radiance of female charms to the cold illumination ODE XXV. ONCE in each revolving year, soar, The wanton babies teem with more. of wisdom and prudence; and to think that women's eyes are the books, the academies, From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire. Longepierre's remark here is very ingenious: the power of beauty, that they used a word im"The Romans,' says he, 'were so convinced of plying strength in the place of the epithet beautiful. Thus Plautus, Act ii. Scene 2, Bacchid. " Sed Bacchis etiam fortis tibi visa. Fortis, id est formosa," say Servius and Nonius.' Thus Love is represented as a bird, in an epigram cited by Longepierre from the Anthologia: 'Tis Love that murmurs in my breast, And oh! 'tis plain where Love has been; Such as within my heart is seen. Ου με λέληθας, Τοξοτα, Ζηνοφιλας ομμασι κρυπτομένος. The poets abound with conceits on the archery of the eyes, but few have turned the thought so naturally as Anacreon. Ronsard gives to the eyes of his mistress un petit camp d'amours.' 2 This ode forms a part of the preceding in the Vatican MS., but I have conformed to the editions in translating them separately. 3 We cannot see into the heart,' says Madame Dacier. But the lover answers: Il cor ne gli occhi e ne la fronte ho scritto. La Fosse has given the following lines, as enlarging on the thought of Anacreon: Lorsque je vois un amant, Il cache en vain son tourment, A le trahir tout conspire, Sa langueur, son embarras, Tout ce qu'il peut faire ou dire, But in the lover's glowing eyes, The inlet to his bosom lies; Through them we see the small faint mark, Where Love has dropped his burning spark! ODE XXVIII. As in the Lemnian caves of fire, He saw the mystic darts, and smiled 'And dost thou smile?' said little Love; 'Take this dart, and thou mayst prove, That though they pass the breeze's flight, My bolts are not so feathery light.' In vain the lover tries to veil The flame which in his bosom lies; We read it in his languid eyes: Labuntur gemini fontes, hic dulcis, amarus The allegorical description of Cupid's employment, in Horace, may vie with this before us in fancy, though not in delicacy: TO PETER DANIEL HUETT. Thon! of tuneful bards the first, Thou! by all the Graces nursed; Friend! each other friend above, Come with me, and learn to love. Loving is a simple lore, Graver men have learned before; ARMED with hyacinthine rod When the mind is dull and dark, 2 Barnes imagines from this allegory, that our poet married very late in life. I do not perceive anything in the ode which seems to allude to matrimony, except it be the lead upon the feet of Cupid; and I must confess that I agree in the opinion of Madame Dacier, in her life of the poet, that he was always too fond of pleasure to Cupid bade me wing my pace, ODE XXXII.3 STREW me a breathing bed of leaves Where lotus with the myrtle weaves; And, while in luxury's dream I sink, Let me the balm of Bacchus drink! gram (I do not know where he found it), which has some similitude to this ode: Lecto compositus, vix prima silentia noctis Carpebam, et somno lumina vieta dabam; Cum me sævus Amor prensum, sursumque capillis Excitat, et lacerum pervigilare jubet. Tu famulus meus, inquit, ames cum mille puellas, Et volucrum cantus, turbaque fida canum. Solus ego ex cunctis paveo somnumque torumque, Et sequor imperium, sæve Cupido, tuum. Upon my couch I lay, at night profound, Who love so many nymphs, thus sleep alone?' Passion my guide, and madness in my breast, In this delicious hour of joy Now let the rose with blush of fire In the original, he says his heart flew to his nose; but our manner more naturally transfers it to the lips. Such is the effect that Plato tells us he felt from a kiss, in a distich, quoted by Aulus Gellius: Την ψυχην, Αγαθωνα φίλων, επι χείλεσιν έσχον, Ηλθε γαρ ή τλημων ὡς διαβησομένη. Whene'er thy nectared kiss I sip, And drink thy breath, in melting twine, Ready to fly and mix with thine. The facility with which Cupid recovers him, signifies that the sweets of love make us easily forget any solicitudes which he may occasion.'La Fosse. We here have the poet, in his true attributes, reclining upon myrtles, with Cupid for his cupbearer. Some interpreters have ruined the picture by making Epws the name of his slave. None but Love should fill the goblet of Anacreon. Sappho has assigned this office to Venus, in a fragment which may be thus paraphrased: Hither, Venus! queen of kisses, |