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(From Hero and Leander)
Translated by C. A. Elton
OPPOSING, Sestos and Abydos stood; | |
| Two neighboring cities parted by the flood. | |
| At both, sure-aiming, Cupid fledged the dart; | |
| Here fired a youth’s, and there a virgin’s heart: | |
| This on Abydos’, that on Sestos’ shore: | 5 |
| Leander, Hero, were the names they bore. | |
| The lovely youth and maid were known afar, | |
| Each of their native town the beauteous star, | |
| In graces matched: if thither tend your way | |
| Inquire the turret whence the torchlight ray | 10 |
| Ushered the youth, while stood the maiden high; | |
| Or let the surge-reëchoing frith reply | |
| Of old Abydos, that with hollow roar | |
| Shall yet Leander’s love and death deplore. * * * * * | |
| ’T was night; when wintry blasts thick-gathering roar | 15 |
| In darted whirlwind rushing on the shore: | |
| Leander, hopeful of his wonted bride, | |
| Was borne aloft upon the sounding tide. | |
| Wave rolled on wave: in heaps the waters stood; | |
| Sea clashed with air; and, howling o’er the flood, | 20 |
| From every point the warring winds were driven, | |
| And the loud deeps dashed roaring to the heaven. | |
| Leander struggled with the whirlpool main, | |
| And oft to sea-sprung Venus cried in vain, | |
| And him, the godhead of the watery reign. | 25 |
| None succoring hastened to the lover’s call, | |
| Nor Love could conquer Fate, though conquering all. | |
| ’Gainst his opposing breast, in rushing heaps, | |
| Burst with swift shock the accumulated deeps: | |
| Stiff hung his nerveless feet: his hands, long spread | 30 |
| Restless amidst the waves, dropped numbed and dead: | |
| Sudden the involuntary waters rushed, | |
| And down his gasping throat the brine-floods gushed; | |
| The bitter wind now quenched the light above, | |
| And, so extinguished, fled Leander’s life and love. | 35 |
| But while he lingered still, the watchful maid, | |
| With terrors wavering, on the tower delayed. | |
| The morning came,—no husband met her view: | |
| O’er the wide seas her wandering sight she threw: | |
| If haply, since the torch was quenched in shade, | 40 |
| Her bridegroom o’er the waters, devious, strayed. | |
| When, at the turret’s foot, her glance described | |
| His rock-torn corse cast upward by the tide, | |
| She rent the broidered robe her breast around, | |
| And headlong from the tower she fell with rushing sound. | 45 |
| Thus on her lifeless husband Hero died, | |
| Nor death’s last anguish could their loves divide. | |
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