close to him thy sweet speech and lovely laughter; that indeed makes my
heart flutter in my bosom. For when I see thee but a little, I have no
utterance left, my tongue is broken down, and straightway a subtle fire has
run under my skin, with my eyes I have no sight, my ears ring, sweat pours
down, and a trembling seizes all my body; I am paler than grass, and seem
in my madness little better than one dead. But I must dare all, since one
so poor_ ...
The famous imitation of this ode by Catullus, li., _Ad Lesbiam_--
Ille mi par esse deo videtur,
Ille, si fas est, superare divos,
Qui sedens adversus identidem te
Spectat et audit
Dulce ridentem, misero quod omnis
Eripit sensus mihi: nam simul te,
Lesbia, aspexi, nihil est super mi
* * * * *
Lingua sed torpet, tenuis sub artus
Flamma demanat, sonitu suopte
Tintinant aures, gemina teguntur
Lumina nocte--
is thus translated by Mr. W. E. Gladstone:--
Him rival to the gods I place,
Him loftier yet, if loftier be,
Who, Lesbia, sits before thy face,
Who listens and who looks on thee;
Thee smiling soft. Yet this delight
Doth all my sense consign to death;
For when thou dawnest on my sight,
Ah, wretched! flits my labouring breath.
My tongue is palsied. Subtly hid
Fire creeps me through from limb to limb:
My loud ears tingle all unbid:
Twin clouds of night mine eyes bedim.
and recently by the late Sir R. F. Burton:--
Peer of a god meseemeth he,
Nay, passing gods (an that can be!),
Who all the while sits facing thee,
Sees thee and hears
Thy low sweet laughs which (ah me!) daze
Mine every sense, and as I gaze
Upon thee, Lesbia, o'er me strays
. . . . . .
My tongue is dulled, my limbs adown
Flows subtle flame; with sound its own
Rings either ear, and o'er are strown
Mine eyes with night.
----
Blest as the immortal gods is he,
The youth who fondly sits by thee,
And hears and sees thee all the while
Softly speak and sweetly smile.
'Twas this deprived my soul of rest,
And raised such tumults in my breast;
For while I gazed, in transport tost,
My breath was gone, my voice was lost:
My bosom glowed; the subtle flame
Ran quick through all my vital frame;
O'er my dim eyes a darkness hung;
My ears with hollow murmurs rung.
In dewy damps my limbs were chilled;
My blood with gentle horror thrilled;
My feeble pulse forgot to play;
I fainted, sank, and died away.
AMBROSE PHILIPS, 1711.
Thy fatal shafts unerring move,
I bow before thine altar, Love
I feel thy soft resistless flame
Glide swift through all my vital frame.
For while I gaze my bosom glows,
My blood in tides impetuous flows;
Hope, fear, and joy alternate roll,
And floods of transports whelm my soul.
My faltering tongue attempts in vain
In soothing murmurs to complain;
My tongue some secret magic ties,
My murmurs sink in broken sighs.
Condemned to nurse eternal care,
And ever drop the silent tear,
Unheard I mourn, unknown I sigh,
Unfriended live, unpitied die.
SMOLLETT, in _Roderick Random_, 1748.
Blest as the immortal gods is he,
The youth whose eyes may look on thee,
Whose ears thy tongue's sweet melody
May still devour.
Thou smilest too?--sweet smile, whose charm
Has struck my soul with wild alarm,
And, when I see thee, bids disarm
Each vital power.
Speechless I gaze: the flame within
Runs swift o'er all my quivering skin;
My eyeballs swim; with dizzy din
My brain reels round;
And cold drops fall; and tremblings frail
Seize every limb; and grassy pale
I grow; and then--together fail
Both sight and sound.
JOHN HERMAN MERIVALE, 1833.
Peer of gods he seemeth to me, the blissful
Man who sits and gazes at thee before him,
Close beside thee sits, and in silence hears thee
Silverly speaking,
Laughing love's low laughter. Oh this, this only
Stirs the troubled heart in my breast to tremble!
For should I but see thee a little moment,
Straight is my voice hushed;
Yea, my tongue is broken, and through and through me
'Neath the flesh impalpable fire runs tingling;
Nothing see mine eyes, and a noise of roaring
Waves in my ear sounds;
Sweat runs down in rivers, a tremor seizes
All my limbs, and paler than grass in autumn,
Caught by pains of menacing death, I falter,
Lost in the love-trance.
J. ADDINGTON SYMONDS, 1883.
Compare Lord Tennyson:--
I watch thy grace; and in its place
My heart a charmed slumber keeps,
While I muse upon thy face;
And a languid fire creeps
Through my veins to all my frame,
Dissolvingly and slowly: soon
From thy rose-red lips _my_ name
Floweth; and then, as in a swoon,
With dinning sound my ears are rife,
My tremulous tongue faltereth,
I lose my colour, I lose my breath,
I drink the cup of a costly death
Brimmed with delicious draughts of warmest life.
I die with my delight, before
I hear what I would hear from thee.
_Eleänore_, 1832.
And--
Last night, when some one spoke his name,
From my swift blood that went and came
A thousand little shafts of flame
Were shiver'd in my narrow frame.--_Fatima_.[8]
And with line 14, Swinburne's--
Paler than grass in summer.--_Sapphics_.
and--
Made like white summer-coloured grass.
_Aholibah_.
Longinus, about 250 A.D., uses this, _The Ode to Anactoria_, or _To a
beloved Woman_, or _To a Maiden_, as tradition variously names it, to
illustrate the perfection of the Sublime in poetry, calling it 'not one
passion, but a congress of passions,' and showing how Sappho had here
seized upon the signs of love-frenzy and harmonised them into faultless
phrase. Plutarch had, about 60 A.D., spoken of this ode as 'mixed with
fire,' and quoted Philoxenus as referring to Sappho's 'sweet-voiced songs
healing love.'
3
[Greek: Asteres men amphi kalan selannan]
[Greek: aips apykryptoisi phaennon eidos,]
[Greek: oppota plêthoisa malista lampê]
[Greek: gan [epi pasan]]
- v - v [Greek: arguria] - v - v ;
_The stars about the fair moon in their turn hide their bright face when
she at about her full lights up all earth with silver._
Planets, that around the beauteous moon
Attendant wait, cast into shade
Their ineffectual lustre, soon
As she, in full-orbed majesty arrayed,
Her silver radiance pours
Upon this world of ours.
J. H. MERIVALE.
The stars around the lovely moon
Their radiant visage hide as soon
As she, full-orbed, appears to sight,
Flooding the earth with her silvery light.
? FELTON.
The stars about the lovely moon
Fade back and vanish very soon,
When, round and full, her silver face
Swims into sight, and lights all space.
EDWIN ARNOLD, 1869.
Stars that shine around the refulgent full moon
Pale, and hide their glory of lesser lustre
When she pours her silvery plenilunar
Light on the orbed earth.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.
'As the stars draw back their shining faces when they surround the fair
moon in her silver fulness.' F. T. PALGRAVE.
Quoted by Eustathius of Thessalonica, late in the twelfth century, to
illustrate the simile in the _Iliad_, viii. 551:--
As when in heaven the stars about the moon
Look beautiful.
TENNYSON.
Julian, about 350 A.D., says Sappho applied the epithet _silver_ to the
moon; wherefore Blomfield suggested its position here.
4
[Greek: Amphi de psychron keladei di' usdôn]
[Greek: malinôn, aithyssomenôn de phyllôn]
[Greek: kôma katarrei]
_And round about the_ [breeze] _murmurs cool through apple-boughs, and
slumber streams from quivering leaves._
Through orchard-plots with fragrance crowned
The clear cold fountain murmuring flows;
And forest leaves with rustling sound
Invite to soft repose.
J. H. MERIVALE.
All around through branches of apple-orchards
Cool streams call, while down from the leaves a-tremble
Slumber distilleth.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.
Professor F. T. Palgrave says:--
'We have three lines on a garden scene full of the heat and sleep of the
fortunate South:--
'"Round about the cool water thrills through the apple-branches, and sleep
flows down upon us in the rustling leaves."
'If there were any authority,' he adds in a note, 'I should like to
translate "through the _troughs_ of apple-wood." That Eastern mode of
garden irrigation gives a much more defined, and hence a more Sappho-like,
image than "through the boughs."'
From the sound of cool waters heard through the green boughs
Of the fruit-bearing trees,
And the rustling breeze,
Deep sleep, as a trance, down over me flows.
FREDERICK TENNYSON, 1890.
Cited by Hermogenes, about 170 A.D., as an example of simple style, and to
show the pleasure given by description. The fragment describes the gardens
of the nymphs, which Demetrius, about 150 A.D., says were sung by Sappho.
Cf. Theocritus, _Idyl_ vii. 135: 'High above our heads waved many a poplar,
many an elm-tree, while close at hand the sacred water from the Nymph's own
cave welled forth with murmurs musical' (A. Lang). And Ovid, _Heroïd._, xv.
157--
A spring there is whose silver waters show, etc.--
(cf. Pope's translation, _infra_, p. 194) probably refers to it.
5
- v - v - v v [Greek: Elthe Kypri]
[Greek: chrysiaisin en kylikessin abrôs]
[Greek: symmemigmenon thaliaisi nektar]
[Greek: oinochoeusa.]
_Come, goddess of Cyprus, and in golden cups serve nectar delicately mixed
with delights._
Come, Venus, come
Hither with thy golden cup,
Where nectar-floated flowerets swim.
Fill, fill the goblet up;
These laughing lips shall kiss the brim,--
Come, Venus, come!
ANON. (_Edin. Rev._, 1832).
Kupris, hither
Come, and pour from goblets of gold the nectar
Mixed for love's and pleasure's delight with dainty
Joys of the banquet.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.
Athenaeus, a native of Naucratis, who flourished about 230 A.D., quotes
these verses as an example of the poets' custom of invoking Aphrodite in
their pledges. Applying them to himself and his fellow-guests, he adds the
words [Greek: toutoisi tois hetairois emois ge kai sois]. Some scholars
believe that Sappho actually wrote--
[Greek: taisde tais emais etaraisi kai sais],
_For these my companions and thine._
Aphrodite was called Cypris, 'the Cyprian,' because it was mythologically
believed that when she rose from the sea she was first received as a
goddess on the shore of Cyprus (_Homeric Hymns_, vi.). Sappho seems to be
here figuratively referring to the nectar of love.
6
[Greek: Ê se Kypros kai Paphos ê Panormos.]
_Or Cyprus and Paphos, or Panormus_ [holds] _thee._
If thee Cyprus, or Paphos, or Panormos.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.
From Strabo, about 19 A.D. Panormus (Palermo) in Sicily was not founded
till after Sappho's time, but it was a common name, and all seaports were
under the special protection of Aphrodite.
7, 8
[Greek: Soi d' egô leukas epi bômon aigos]
- v - v - v v - v - v
[Greek: kapileipsô toi] v v - v - v ;
_But for thee will I_ [lead] _to the altar_ [the offspring] _of a white
goat ... and add a libation for thee._
Adduced by Apollonius of Alexandria, about 140 A.D., to illustrate
similarities in dialects. The fragment is probably part of an ode
describing a sacrifice offered to Aphrodite.
9
[Greek: Aith' egô, chrysostephan' Aphrodita,]
[Greek: tonde ton palon lachoên.]
_This lot may I win, golden-crowned Aphrodite._
From Apollonius, to show how adverbs give an idea of prayer.
10
[Greek: Ai me timian epoêsan erga]
[Greek: ta spha doisai.]
_Who gave me their gifts and made me honoured._
From Apollonius, to illustrate the Aeolic dialect. Bergk thinks this
fragment had some connection with fr. 68, and perhaps with fr. 32. It seems
to refer to the Muses.
11
- v - v - [Greek: Tade nyn etairais]
[Greek: tais emaisi terpna kalôs aeisô.]
_This will I now sing deftly to please my girl-friends._
Quoted by Athenaeus to prove that freeborn women and maidens often called
their girl associates and friends [Greek: etairai] (_Hetaerae_), without
any idea of reproach.
12
- v - v - v v [Greek: Ottinas gar]
[Greek: eu theô, kênoi me malista sinnon-]
[Greek: tai.] v v - v ;
_For they whom I benefit injure me most._
From the _Etymologicum Magnum_, a dictionary which was compiled about the
tenth century A.D.
13
- v - v - v [Greek: Egô de kên' ot-]
[Greek: tô tis eratai.]
_But that which one desires I ..._
From Apollonius, to illustrate the use of the verb [Greek: eraô]. Bergk now
reads [Greek: eratai] instead of [Greek: eratai] as formerly, on the
analogy of [Greek: diakêtai] and [Greek: dynamai] in the Fayum fragments.
14
[Greek: Tais kalais ymmin [to] noêma tômon]
[Greek: oi diameipton.]
_To you, fair maids, my mind changes not._
From Apollonius, to show the Aeolic use of [Greek: ymmin] for [Greek:
hymin], 'to you.'
15
- v - v - v [Greek: Egôn d' imauta]
[Greek: touto synoida.]
_And this I feel in myself._
From Apollonius, to show Aeolic accentuation.
16
[Greek: Taisi [de] psychros men egento thymos,]
[Greek: par d' ieisi ta ptera.] - v - v
_But their heart turned cold and they dropt their wings._
In Pindar, _Pyth._ i. 10, the eagle of Zeus, delighted by music, drops his
wings, and the Scholiast quotes this fragment to show that Sappho says the
same of doves.
17
- v - v - v [Greek: kat' emon stalagmon;]
[Greek: Ton d' epiplazontes amoi pheroien]
[Greek: kai meledônais.]
_According to my weeping: it and all care let buffeting winds bear away._
Him the wanderer o'er the world
Far away the winds will bear,
And restless care.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.
From the _Etymologicum Magnum_, to show that the Aeolians used [Greek: z]
in the place of [Greek: ss]. [Greek: Amoi] is a guess of Bergk's for
[Greek: anemoi], 'winds.'
18
[Greek: Artiôs m' a chrysopedillos Auôs.]
_Me just now the golden-sandalled Dawn ..._
Me but now Aurora the golden-sandalled.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.
Quoted by Ammonius of Alexandria, at the close of the fourth century A.D.,
to show Sappho's use of [Greek: artiôs].
19
- v - v - v v [Greek: Podas de]
[Greek: poikilos maslês ekalypte, Lydi-]
[Greek: on kalon ergon.]
_A broidered strap of fair Lydian work covered her feet._
Quoted by the Scholiast on Aristophanes' _Peace_, 1174; and also by Pollux,
about 180 A.D. Blass thinks the lines may have referred to an apparition of
Aphrodite.
20
- v - v [Greek: Pantodapais memigme-]
[Greek: na chroiaisin.]
_Shot with a thousand hues._
Quoted by the Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, i. 727, in speaking of
Jason's double-folded mantle having been reddish instead of flame-coloured.
Some think, however, that Sappho here refers to Iris, _i.e._ the rainbow.
21
... [Greek: Emethen d' echeistha lathan]
_Me thou forgettest_.
From Apollonius, as is also the following, to show the Aeolic use of
[Greek: emethen] for [Greek: emou], 'of me.'
22
- v - v - v v [Greek: Ê tin' allon]
[Greek: [mallon] anthrôpôn emethen philêstha.]
_Or lovest another more than me._
23
[Greek: Ou ti moi ymmes.]
_Ye are nought to me._
Quoted by Apollonius, as is also the following fragment, to show that
[Greek: hymeis] was in Aeolic [Greek: ymmes] 'you.'
24
[Greek: As thelet' ymmes.]
_While ye will._
25
[Greek: Kai pothêô kai maomai] v - v
_I yearn and seek ..._
From the _Etymologicum Magnum_, to show that the Aeolians used [Greek:
pothêô] for [Greek: potheô], 'I yearn.'
26
[Greek: Keinon, ô chrysothrone Mous', enispes]
[Greek: hymnon, ek tas kalligynaikos esthlas]
[Greek: Têios chôras hon aeide terpnôs]
[Greek: presbys agauos.]
_O Muse of the golden throne, raise that strain which the reverend elder of
Teos, from the goodly land of fair women, used to sing so sweetly._
O Muse, who sitt'st on golden throne,
Full many a hymn of dulcet tone
The Teian sage is taught by thee;
But, goddess, from thy throne of gold,
The sweetest hymn thou'st ever told
He lately learned and sang for me.
T. MOORE.
Athenaeus says 'Hermesianax was mistaken when he represented Sappho and
Anacreon as contemporaries, for Anacreon lived in the time of Cyrus and
Polycrates [probably 563-478 B.C.], but Sappho lived in the reign of
Alyattes the father of Croesus. But Chamaeleon, in his treatise on Sappho,
asserts that according to some these verses were made upon her by
Anacreon:--
"Spirit of Love, whose tresses shine
Along the breeze in golden twine,
Come, within a fragrant cloud
Blushing with light, thy votary shroud,
And on those wings that sparkling play
Waft, oh waft me hence away!
Love, my soul is full of thee,
Alive to all thy luxury.
But she, the nymph for whom I glow,
The pretty Lesbian, mocks my woe,
Smiles at the hoar and silvery hues
Which Time upon my forehead strews.
Alas, I fear she keeps her charms
In store for younger, happier arms."'
T. MOORE.
Then follows Sappho's reply, the present fragment. 'I myself think,'
Athenaeus goes on to say, 'that Hermesianax is joking concerning the love
of Anacreon and Sappho, for Diphilus the comic poet, in his play called
_Sappho_, has represented Archilochus and Hipponax as the lovers of
Sappho.'
Probably the whole is spurious, for certainly Sappho never saw Anacreon:
she must have died before he was born. Even Athenaeus says that it is clear
to every one that the verses are not Sappho's.
II
IN DACTYLIC METRE
27
[Greek: Skidnamenas en stêthesin orgas]
[Greek: mapsylakan glôssan pephylachthai.]
_When anger spreads through the breast, guard thy tongue from barking
idly._
When through thy breast wild wrath doth spread
And work thy inmost being harm,
Leave thou the fiery word unsaid,
Guard thee; be calm.
MICHAEL FIELD, 1889.
Quoted by Plutarch, in his treatise _On restraining anger_, to show that in
wrath nothing is more noble than quietness. Blass thinks that Bergk is
wrong in his restoration of the verses; he considers their metre choriambic
(like fr. 64, ff.), and reads them thus:
= = [Greek: skidnamenas stêthesin orgas pephylagmena] (?)
[Greek: glôssan mapsylakan] - v v - - v v - v -
He compares fr. 72 with them.
III
IN ALCAIC METRE
28
[Greek: Ai d' êches eslôn imeron ê kalôn,]
[Greek: kai mê ti weipên glôss' ekyka kakon,]
[Greek: aidôs ke s' ou kichanen oppat',]
[Greek: all' eleges peri tô dikaiôs.]
_Hadst thou felt desire for things good or noble, and had not thy tongue
framed some evil speech, shame had not filled thine eyes, but thou hadst
spoken honestly about it._
THE LOVES OF SAPPHO AND ALCAEUS.
_Alcaeus_.--I fain would speak, I fain would tell,
But shame and fear my utterance quell.
_Sappho_.--If aught of good, if aught of fair
Thy tongue were labouring to declare,
Nor shame should dash thy glance, nor fear
Forbid thy suit to reach my ear.
ANON. (_Edin. Rev._, 1832, p. 190).
Aristotle, in his _Rhetoric_, i. 9, about 330 B.C., says 'base things
dishonour those who do or wish them, as Sappho showed when Alcaeus said--
[Greek: ioplok' agna mellichomeide Sapphoi,]
[Greek: thelô ti weipên, alla me kôluei aidôs.]
"_Violet-weaving, pure, softly-smiling Sappho, I would say something, but
shame restrains me_"' (cf. _supra_, p. 8), and she answered him in the
words of the present fragment.
Blass (_Rhein. Mus._ 1879, xxix. p. 150) believes that these verses also
are Sappho's, not Alcaeus'. Certainly they were quoted as Sappho's by Anna
Comnena, about 1110 A.D., as well as by another writer whom Blass refers
to. Blass would read the last line [Greek: peri ô dikaiôs] ([Greek:
'dikaiôs]) = [Greek: peri hou edikaious], _about that which thou didst
pretend_.
IV
IN MIXED GLYCONIC AND ALCAIC METRE
29
[Greek: Stathi kanta philos ...]
[Greek: kai tan ep' ossois ampetason charin.]
_Stand face to face, friend ... and unveil the grace in thine eyes._
Athenaeus, speaking of the charm of lovers' eyes, says Sappho addressed
this to a man who was admired above all others for his beauty. Bergk thinks
it may have formed part of an ode to Phaon (cf. fr. 140), or of a bridal
song; and A. Schoene suspects that it was possibly addressed to Sappho's
brother. The metre is quite uncertain.
V
IN CHORIAMBIC METRE
[This is a very unsatisfactory category. Some of the fragments, _e.g_.
30-43, are in Aeolian dactyls, wherein the second foot is always a dactyl;
44-49 are Glyconics; 50-54 are in the Ionic _a majore_ metre; some others
are Asclepiads, etc. But where so much is uncertain, it seems to be the
simplest way to group them thus.]
30
[Greek: Chryseoi d' erebinthoi ep' aionôn ephuonto.]
_And golden pulse grew on the shores._
Quoted by Athenaeus, when he is speaking of vetches.
31
[Greek: Latô kai Nioba mala men philai êsan etaipai.]
_Leto and Niobe were friends full dear._
Quoted by Athenaeus for the same reason as fr. 11. Compare also fr. 143.
32
[Greek: Mnasesthai tina phami kai ysteron ammeôn.]
_Men I think will remember us even hereafter._
Compare Swinburne's--
Thou art more than I,
Though my voice die not till the whole world die.
and--
Memories shall mix and metaphors of me.
and--
I Sappho shall be one with all these things,
With all high things for ever.
_Anactoria_.
Dio Chrysostom, the celebrated Greek rhetorician, writing about 100 A.D.,
observes that Sappho says this 'with perfect beauty.'
To illustrate this use of [Greek: phami], Bergk quotes a fragment preserved
by Plutarch, which may have been written by Sappho:
. . . . . [Greek: egô phami ioplokôn]
[Greek: Moisan eu lachemen.]
_I think I have a goodly portion in the violet weaving Muses._
33
[Greek: Êraman men egô sethen, Atthi, palai pota.]
_I loved thee once, Atthis, long ago._
_I loved thee_,--hark, one tenderer note than all--
_Atthis, of old time, once_--one low long fall,
Sighing--one long low lovely loveless call,
Dying--one pause in song so flamelike fast--
_Atthis, long since in old time overpast--_
One soft first pause and last.
One,--then the old rage of rapture's fieriest rain
Storms all the music-maddened night again.
SWINBURNE, _Songs of the Springtides_, p. 57.
Quoted by Hephaestion, about 150 A.D., as an example of metre. The verse
stood at the beginning of the first ode of the second book of Sappho's
poems, which Hephaestion says was composed entirely of odes in this metre:
thus,
= = - v v - v v - v v - v = ;
34
[Greek: Smikra moi pais emmen ephaineo kacharis.]
_A slight and ill-favoured child didst thou seem to me._
Quoted by Plutarch; and by others also.
Bergk thinks it is certain that this fragment belongs to the same poem as
does the preceding, judging from references to it by Terentianus Mauris,
about 100 A.D., and by Marius Victorinus, about 350 A.D.
35
[Greek: Alla, mê megalyneo daktyliô peri.]
_Foolish woman, pride not thyself on a ring._
Preserved by Herodian the grammarian, who lived about 160 A.D.
36
[Greek: Ouk oid' otti theô; duo moi ta noêmata.]
_I know not what to do; my mind is divided._
Quoted by the Stoic philosopher Chrysippus, about 220 B.C.
37
[Greek: Psauên d' ou dokimoim' oranô dysi pachesin.]
_I do not think to touch the sky with my two arms._
Quoted by Herodian. Cf. Horace, _Carm._ I. i. 36, _Sublimi feriam sidera
vertice_,--
My head, exalted so, will touch the stars,
which some think a direct translation of this line of Sappho's.
Old Horace? 'I will strike,' said he,
'The stars with head sublime.'
TENNYSON, _Tiresias_, 1885.
38
[Greek: Ôs de pais peda matera pepterygômai.]
_And I flutter like a child after her mother._
Like a child whose mother's lost,
I am fluttering, terror-tost.
M. J. WALHOUSE.
After my mother I flew like a bird.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.
Quoted in the _Etymologicum Magnum_ as an example of Aeolic. It may have
related to a sparrow, and been imitated by Catullus, 3, 6 ff.:
Sweet, all honey: a bird that ever hailed her
Lady mistress, as hails the maid a mother.
Nor would move from her arms away: but only
Hopping round her, about her, hence or hither
Piped his colloquy, piped to none beside her.
ROBINSON ELLIS.
39
[Greek: Êros angelos imerophônos aêdôn.]
_Spring's messenger, the sweet-voiced nightingale._
The dear good angel of the spring,
The nightingale.
BEN JONSON, _The Sad Shepherd_, Act ii.
The tawny sweetwinged thing
Whose cry was but of Spring.
SWINBURNE, _Songs of the Springtides_, p. 52.
Quoted by the Scholiast on Sophocles, _Electra_, 149, 'the nightingale is
the messenger of Zeus, because it is the sign of Spring.'
40
[Greek: Eros daute m' o lysimelês donei,]
[Greek: glykypikron amachanon orpeton.]
_Now Love masters my limbs and shakes me, fatal creature, bitter-sweet._
Lo, Love once more, the limb-dissolving King,
The bitter-sweet impracticable thing,
Wild-beast-like rends me with fierce quivering.
J. ADDINGTON SYMONDS, 1883.
Compare--
O Love, Love, Love! O withering might!
TENNYSON, _Fatima_.
O bitterness of things too sweet!
SWINBURNE, _Fragoletta_.
Sweet Love, that art so bitter.
SWINBURNE, _Tristram of Lyonesse_.
and the song in _Bothwel_, act i. sc. 1:--
Surely most bitter of all sweet things thou art,
And sweetest thou of all things bitter, love.
Quoted by Hephaestion. Cf. fr. 125.
41
[Greek: Atthi, soi d' emethen men apêchtheto]
[Greek: phrontisdên, epi d' Andromedan potê.]
_But to thee, Atthis, the thought of me is hateful; thou flittest to
Andromeda._