English

Blick um dich, was Geschick und Welle will:
Du liegst in Händen, die dein Herz nicht schonen,
Und dir verwehrt mit Himmeln und mit Zonen
Liegt Land um Land. Was noch? und willst du still
Hintreiben dort hinaus wo nicht mehr schrill
Dein Ohr das Graun vollsingt? wo seit Äonen
Bestehn, die nicht begehren und nicht fronen?
Ein Jahr steigt auf aus Tränen und April,

Und hinterm fernen Sommer auf der Bütte
Schläft schon der Herbst, der dir die Traube nicht
Vom blond und blau Gehäuften reichen wird:

Madam, before your feet I lay
This ode upon your wedding day,
The first indeed I ever made,
For writing odes is not my trade:
My head is full of household cares
And necessary dull affairs;
Besides that sometimes jealous frumps
Will put me into doleful dumps,
And then no clown beneath the sky
Was e'er more ungallant than I:
For you alone I now think fit
To turn a poet and a wit —
For you, whose charms I know not how
Have pow'r to smooth my wrinkled brow,
And make me tho' by nature stupid

OCCASIONED BY THE FOREGOING VERSES .

Methought I saw before my feet,
With countenance serene and sweet,
The Muse who in my youthful days
Had oft' inspir'd my carless lays;
She smil'd, and said, " Once more I see
" My fugitive returns to me;
" Long had I lost you from my bow'r,
" You scorn'd to own my gentle pow'r;
" With me no more your genius sported,
" The grave historick Muse you courted,
" Or rais'd from earth with straining eyes

A wild squall from the east, darkness, and the waves of Orion's lurid setting were my fate and I, Kallaiskhros, gave up my life as I fled across the Libyan sea;
So now I am swept to and fro by the waters, a prey to fishes, and this stone lies when it says that I am here.

Tausend Gesellen erbat ich vom Ewigen eh mir Gott in Einem
Vergalt mit vollen Tausend die er mir weigerte
Liebreich Herz, Du Geber, ich danke Dir, Rudolf Alexander
Verteidiger, Bestätiger, Besänftiger.

In Earth's name, offer Kleitagoras a small but gracious favour, for the sake of Persephone under the earth, O shepherds, who frequent this mountain ridge, pasturing your goats and your fleecy sheep. Let the sheep bleat, and let the shepherd, seated upon an unhewn rock, pipe softly as they feed; and may the countryman wreathe my gravestone with the meadow-flowers of early spring, and may some one press the milk from the udder of a fruitful ewe to moisten the base of my tomb:
Such favours are rewarded even by the dead.

Tune, Her Sheep all in clusters .

Ye dark, rugged rocks, that recline o'er the deep,
Ye breezes, that sigh o'er the main,
Here shelter me, under your cliffs, while I weep,
And cease, while ye hear me complain;
For distant, alas! from my native dear shores,
And far from each friend now I be;
And wide is the merciless ocean, that roars
Between my Matilda and me.

Once more, Great Prince , in shining Arms appear,
And draw that Sword which Gallia us'd to fear:
All other Nations have thy Succour known;
The last great Task is to Relieve thy Own .
Afflicted Europe , when she sought thy Aid,
The Price of Liberty in Glory paid;
But Duty here no Foreign Motive needs,
It is enough to Thee — — — that Britain bleeds;
Ungrateful Britain! Prodigal in Ill,
To thee Ungrateful — — yet thy Country still.

Go, Mighty Chief , and draw thy Vet'rans forth,

I am a mound for shipwrecked Dioskles. Alas for the daring of sailors, who cast off their moorings, forgetful of their graves.

May good fortune follow the hunter of hares, and the fowler who comes here to seek the birds nesting beneath this double hill!
Call to me from the cliff, O Pan, guardian of the wood, for I join in the chase with my dogs and my reeds.