Array Anacreon - The Greatest Classics of Ancient Greece

Back to whom their truant wings were in rapture

Speeding belated;

Chilled at heart and grieving they drooped their pinions,

Circled slowly, dipping in flight toward Lesbos,

Down through dusk that darkened on Mitylene's

Columns of marble;

Down through glory wan of the fading sunset,

Veering ever toward the abode of Sappho,

Toward my home, the fane of the glad devoted

Slave of the Goddess;

Soon they gained the tile of my roof and rested,

Slipped their heads beneath their wings while I watched them

Sink to sleep and dreams, in the warm and drowsy

Night of midsummer.

ANACREON'S SONG

Golden-throned Muse, sing the song that in olden

Days was sung of love and delight in Teos,

In the goodly land of the lovely women:

Strains that in other

Years the hoary bard with the youthful fancy

Set to mirthful stir of flutes, when the dancing

Nymphs that poured the wine for the poet's banquet

Mixed it with kisses;

Sing the song while I, in the arms of Atthis,

Seal her lips to mine with a lover's fervor,

Breathe her breath and drink her sighs to the honeyed

Lull of the melics.

THE DAUGHTER OF CYPRUS

Dreaming I spake with the Daughter of Cyprus,

Heard the languor soft of her voice, the blended

Suave accord of tones interfused with laughter

Low and desireful;

Dreaming saw her dread ineffable beauty,

Saw through texture fine of her clinging tunic

Blush the fire of flesh, the rose of her body,

Radiant, blinding;

Saw through filmy meshes the melting lovely

Flow of line, the exquisite curves, whence piercing

Rapture reached with tangible touch to thrill me,

Almost to slay me;

Saw the gleaming foot, and the golden sandal

Held by straps of Lydian work thrice doubled

Over the instep's arch, and up the rounded

Dazzling ankle;

Saw the charms that shimmered from knee to shoulder,

Hint of hues, than milk or the snowdrift whiter;

Secret grace, the shrine of the soul of passion,

Glows that consumed me;

Saw the gathered mass of her xanthic tresses,

Mitra-bound, escape from the clasping fillet,

Float and shine as clouds in the sunset splendor,

Mists in the dawn-fire;

Saw the face immortal, and daring greatly,

Raised my eyes to hers of unfathomed azure,

Drank their world's desire, their limitless longing,

Swooned and was nothing.

THE DISTAFF

Come, ye dainty Graces and lovely Muses,

Rosy-armed and pure and with fairest tresses,

Come from groves on Helicon's hill where murmur

Founts that are holy;

Come with dancing step and with lips harmonic,

Gather near and view my ivory distaff,

Gift from Cos my brother Charaxus brought me,

Sailing from Egypt;

Sailing back to Lesbos from far Naucratis,

From the seven mouths of the Nile and Egypt

Up the blue Ægean, the island-dotted

Ocean of Hellas;

Choicest wool alone will I spin for fabrics,

Winding reel with threads for the cloths as fleecy,

Soft and fine as they bring from far Phocea,

Sidon or Sardis;

While I weave my thought shall engird the giver,

Whether here, or far on the sea, or resting

Couched in shady courts with the lovely garland

Girls of Naucratis.

THE SLEEP WIND

Softer than mists o'er the pale green of waters,

O'er the charmed sea, shod with sandals of shadow

Comes the warm sleep wind of Argolis, floating

Garlands of fragrance;

Comes the sweet wind by the still hours attended,

Touching tired lids on the shores dim with distance,

Ever its way toward the headland of Lesbos,

Toward Mitylene.

Faintly one fair star of evening enkindles

On the dusk afar its lone fire Œtean,

Shining serene till the darkness will deepen

Others to splendor;

Bringing ineffable peace, and the gladsome

Return with the night of all things that morning

Ruthlessly parted, the child to its mother,

Lover to lover.

From the marble court of rose-crowned companions,

All alone my feet again seek the little

Theatre pledged to the Muse, now deserted,

Facing the surges;

Where the carved Pan-heads that laugh down the gentle

Slope of broad steps to the refluent ripple,

Flute from their thin pipes the dithyrambs deathless,

Songs all unuttered.

Empty each seat where my girl friends acclaimed me,

Poets with names on the tiered stone engraven,

Over whose verge blooms the apple tree, drifting

Perfume and petals;

Gone Telesippa and tender Gyrinno,

Anactoria, woman divine; Atthis,

Subtlest of soul, fair Damophyla, Dica,

Maids of the Muses.

Here an hour past soul-enravished they listened

While my rapt heart breathed its pæan impassioned,

Chanted its wild prayer to thee, Aphrodite,

Daughter of Cyprus;

Now to their homes are they gone in the city,

Pensive to dream limb-relaxed while the languid

Slaves come and lift from the tresses they loosen,

Flowers that have faded.

Thou alone, Sappho, art sole with the silence,

Sole with night and dreams that are darkness, weaving

Thoughts that are sighs from the heart and their meaning

Vague as the shadow;

When the great silence shall come to thee, sad one,

Men that forget shall remember thy music,

Murmur thy name that shall steal on their passion

Soft as the sleep wind.

THE REPROACH

Kypris, hear my prayer to thee and the Nereids!

Safely bring the ship of my brother homewards,

Bring him back unharmed to the heart that loves him,

Throbbing remorseful;

Fair Immortal, banish from mind, I pray thee,

Every discord's hint that of yore estranged us;

Grant that never again dissension's hateful

Wrangle shall part us;

May he never in days to come remember

Keen reproach of mine that had grieved him sorely;

Words that broke my very heart when I heard them

Uttered by others;

Words that wounded deep and recurring often,

Bowed his head with shame at the public banquet;

Where my scorn, amid festal joy and laughter,

Sharpened the covert

Jests that stung his pride and assailed his folly,

Slave-espoused when he, a Lesbian noble,

Might have won the fairest in Mitylene,

Virgins the noblest;

Open slurs that linked his name with Doricha,

Lovely slave that Xanthes had sold in Egypt;

She whose wondrous charms the wealth of Charaxus

Ransomed from bondage.

Now that he is gone and my anger vanished,

Keen regret and grief for the pain I gave him

Pierce my heart, and fear of loss that is anguish

Darkens the daylight.

LONG AGO

Long ago beloved, thy memory, Atthis,

Saddens still my heart as the soft Æolic

Twilight deepens down on the sea, and fitful

Winds that have wandered

Over groves of myrtle at Amathonte

Waft forgotten passion on breaths of perfume.

Long ago, how madly I loved thee, Atthis!

Faithless, light-hearted

Loved one, mine no more, who lovest another

More than me; the silent flute and the faded

Garlands haunt the heart of me thou forgettest,

Long since thy lover.

Table of Contents

HYMENAIOS

Artisans, raise high the roof beam!

Tall is the bridegroom as Ares,

Taller by far than the tallest,

O Hymenæus!

Ay! towering over his fellows,

As over men of all other

Lands towers the Lesbian singer,

O Hymenæus!

Well-favored, too, is the maiden,

Eyes that are sweeter than honey,