MINOR POEMS

(Continued).

VOL. III.

B

[TRANSLATIONS.]

THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, LIB. I.,

Quis multâ gracilis te puer in rosa,

Rendered almost word for word, without rhyme, according to the Latin measure, as near as the language will permit.

WHAT slender youth, bedewed with liquid odours,
Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave,

Pyrrha? For whom bind'st thou
In wreaths thy golden hair,

Plain in thy neatness? Oh, how oft shall he
On faith and changed gods complain, and seas
Rough with black winds and storms

Unwonted shall admire,

Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold;
Who always vacant, always amiable,

Hopes thee, of flattering gales

Unmindful! Hapless they

To whom thou untried seem'st fair! Me, in my vowed

Picture, the sacred wall declares to have hung

My dank and dropping weeds

To the stern God of Sea.

[As Milton inserts the original with his translation, as if to challenge comparison, it is right that we should do so too.]

AD PYRRIIAM. ODE V.

Horatius ex Pyrrhæ illecebris tanquam e naufragio enataverat, cujus amore irretitos affirmat esse miseros.

QUIS multâ gracilis te puer in rosâ
Perfusus liquidis urget odoribus

Grato, Pyrrha, sub antro?

Cui flavam religas comam
Simplex munditie? Heu, quoties fidem
Mutatosque Deos flebit, et aspera

Nigris æquora ventis

Emirabitur insolens,

Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aureâ;
Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem,

Sperat, nescius auræ

Fallacis! Miseri quibus

Intentata nites. Me tabulâ sacer
Votivâ paries indicat uvida
Suspendisse potenti

Vestimenta maris Deo.

April, 1648.-J.М.

Nine of the Psalms done into metre; wherein all, but what is in a different character, are the very words of the Text, translated from the original.

PSALM LXXX.

I THOU Shepherd that dost Israel keep,

Give ear in time of need,

Who leadest like a flock of sheep

Thy loved Joseph's seed,
That sitt'st between the Cherubs bright,
Between their wings outspread;

Shine forth, and from thy cloud give light,
And on our foes thy dread.

2 In Ephraim's view and Benjamin's,

And in Manasseh's sight,
Awake1 thy strength, come, and be seen

To save us by thy might.

3 Turn us again; thy grace divine
To us, O God, vouchsafe;

Cause thou thy face on us to shine,
And then we shall be safe.

4 Lord God of Hosts, how long wilt thou,

How long wilt thou declare
Thy 2 smoking wrath, and angry brow,
Against thy people's prayer ?

2 Gnashanta.

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5 Thou feed'st them with the bread of tears;
Their bread with tears they eat;
And mak'st them largely drink the tears
Wherewith their cheeks are wet.

3 Shalish.

6 A strife thou mak'st us and a prey

To every neighbour foe;
Among themselves they laugh, they play,
And flouts at us they throw.
7 Return us, and thy grace divine,
O God of Hosts, vouchsafe;
Cause thou thy face on us to shine,
And then we shall be safe.

8 A Vine from Egypt thou hast brought,
Thy free love made it thine,

And drov'st out nations proud and haut,
To plant this lovely Vine.

9 Thou didst prepare for it a place,

And root it deep and fast,

That it began to grow apacе,

And filled the land at last.

* Filgnagu.

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