II.

YEA, here the dew of Heaven upon the grain

Fails never, nor the ceaseless water-spring,

Near neighbour of Cephisus wandering,

That day by day revisiteth the plain.

Nor do the Goddesses the grove disdain,

But chiefly here the Muses quire and sing,

And here they love to weave their dancing ring,

With Aphrodite of the golden rein.

And here there springs a plant that knoweth not

The Asian mead, nor that great Dorian isle,

Unsown, untilled, within our garden plot

It dwells, the grey-leaved olive; ne’er shall guile

Nor force of foemen root it from the spot:

Zeus and Athene guarding it the while!

Ballades & Rhymes from Ballades in Blue China and Rhymes a la Mode · 第 177 / 190 题