Array Anacreon - The Greatest Classics of Ancient Greece

Fair both in face and in figure,

O Hymenæus!

For there was never another

Virgin in loveliness like her,

By Aphrodite so honored,

O Hymenæus!

O happy bridegroom, the wedding

Comes to the point of completion;

Thou hast the maid of thy choosing,

O Hymenæus!

See how a paleness suffuses

Soft o'er her exquisite features,

Passion's benign premonition,

O Hymenæus!

Go to the couch unreluctant,

Rejoicing and sweet to the bridegroom;

He in his turn is rejoicing,

O Hymenæus!

May Hesperus lead thee, and Hera,

She whom to-night that ye honor,

Silver-throned Goddess of marriage,

O Hymenæus!

BRIDAL SONG

Bride, that goest to the bridal chamber

In the dove-drawn car of Aphrodite,

By a band of dimpled

Loves surrounded;

Bride, of maidens all the fairest image

Mitylene treasures of the Goddess,

Rosy-ankled Graces

Are thy playmates;

Bride, O fair and lovely, thy companions

Are the gracious hours that onward passing

For thy gladsome footsteps

Scatter garlands.

Bride, that blushing like the sweetest apple

On the very branch's end, so strangely

Overlooked, ungathered

By the gleaners;

Bride, that like the apple that was never

Overlooked but out of reach so plainly,

Only one thy rarest

Fruit may gather;

Bride, that into womanhood has ripened

For the harvest of the bridegroom only,

He alone shall taste thy

Hoarded sweetness.

EPITHALAMIUM

Vesper is here! behold

Faint gleams that welcome shine!

Rise from the feast, O youths,

And chant the fescennine!

Before the porch we sing

The hymeneal song;

Vesper is here, O youths!

The star we waited long.

We lead the festal groups

Across the bridegroom's porch;

Vesper is here, O youths!

Wave high the bridal torch.

Hail, noble bridegroom, hail!

The virgin fair has come;

Unlatch the door and lead

Her timid footsteps home.

Hail, noble bridegroom, hail!

Straight as a tender tree;

Fond as a folding vine

Thy bride will cling to thee.

PIERIA'S ROSE

Pale death shall come, and thou and thine shall be,

Then and thereafter, to all memory

Forgotten as the wind that yesterday

Blew the last lingering apple buds away;

For thou hadst never that undying rose

To grace the brow and shed immortal glows;

Pieria's fadeless flower that few may claim

To wreathe and save thy unremembered name.

Ay! even on the fields of Dis unknown,

Obscure among the shadows and alone,

Thy flitting shade shall pass uncomforted

Of any heed from all the flitting dead.

But no one maid, I think, beneath the skies,

At any time shall live and be as wise,

In sooth, as I am; for the Muses Nine

Have made me honored and their gifts are mine;

And men, I think, will never quite forget

My songs or me; so long as stars shall set

Or sun shall rise, or hearts feel love's desire,

My voice shall cross their dreams, a sigh of fire.

LAMENT FOR ADONIS

Ah, for Adonis!

See, he is dying,

Delicate, lovely,

Slender Adonis.

Ah, for Adonis!

Weep, O ye maidens,

Beating your bosoms,

Rending your tunics.

O Cytherea,

Hasten, for never

Loved thou another

As thy Adonis.

See, on the rosy

Cheek with its dimple,

Blushing no longer,

Thanatos' shadow.

Save him, O Goddess!

Thou, the beguiler,

All-powerful, holy,

Stay the dread evil.

Ah, for Adonis!

No more at vintage

Time will he come with

Bloom of the meadows.

Ah, for Adonis!

See, he is dying,

Fading as flowers

With the lost summer.

THE STRICKEN FLOWER

Think not to ever look as once of yore,

Atthis, upon my love; for thou no more

Wilt find intact upon its stem the flower

Thy guile left slain and bleeding in that hour.

So ruthless shepherds crush beneath their feet

The hill flower blooming in the summer heat;

The hyacinth whose purple heart is found

Left bruised and dead, to darken on the ground.

DEATH

Death is an evil; so the Gods decree,

So they have judged, and such must rightly be

Our mortal view; for they who dwell on high

Had never lived, had it been good to die.

And so the poet's house should never know

Of tears and lamentations any show;

Such things befit not us who deathless sing

Of love and beauty, gladness and the spring.

No hint of grief should mar the features of

Our dreams of endless beauty, lasting love;

For they reflect the joy inviolate,

Eternal calm that fronts whatever fate.

Clëis, my darling, grieve no more, I pray!

Let wandering winds thy sorrow bear away,

And all our care; my daughter, let thy smile

Shine through thy tears and gladden me the while.

PERSEPHONE

I saw a tender maiden plucking flowers

Once, long ago, in the bright morning hours;

And then from heaven I saw a sudden cloud

Fall swift and dark, and heard her cry aloud.

Again I looked, but from my open door

My anxious eyes espied the maid no more;

The cloud had vanished, bearing her away

To underlands beyond the smiling day.

Table of Contents

MAIDENHOOD

Do I long for maidenhood?

Do I long for days

When upon the mountain slope

I would stand and gaze

Over the Ægean's blue

Melting into mist,

Ere with love my virgin lips

Cercolas had kissed?

Maidenhood, O maidenhood,

Whither hast thou flown?

To a land beyond the sea

Thou hast never known.

Maidenhood, O maidenhood,

Wilt return to me?

Never will my bloom again

Give its grace to thee.

Now the autumn skies are low,

Youth and summer sped;

Shepherd hills are far away,

Cercolas is dead.

Mitylene's marble courts

Echo with my name;—

Maidenhood, we never dreamed,

Long ago of fame.

EVER MAIDEN

I shall be ever maiden,

Ever the little child,

In my passionate quest for the lovely,

By earth's glad wonder beguiled.

I shall be ever maiden,

Standing in soul apart,

For the Gods give the secret of beauty

Alone to the virgin heart.

CLËIS

Daughter of mine, so fair,

With a form like a golden flower,

Wherefore thy pensive air

And the dreams in the myrtle bower?

Clëis, beloved, thy eyes

That are turned from my gaze, thy hand

That trembles so, I prize

More than all the Lydian land;

More than the lovely hills

With the Lesbian olive crowned;—

Tell me, darling, what ills

In the gloom of thy thought are found?

Daughter of mine, come near

And thy head on my knees recline;

Whisper and never fear,

For the beat of thy heart is mine.

Sweet mother, I can turn

With content to my loom no more;

My bosom throbs, I yearn

For a youth that my eyes adore;

Lykas of Eresus,

Whom I knew when a little child;

My heart by Love is thus

With the sweetest of pain beguiled.

ASPIRATION

I do not think with my two arms to touch the sky,

I do not dream to do almighty things;

So small a singing bird may never soar so high,

To beat the sapphire fire with baffled wings.

I do not think with my two arms to touch the sky,

I do not dream by any chance to share

With deathless Gods the bliss of Paphos they deny

To men behind the azure veil of air.