ION AND THE BIRDS (from "Ion")
by: Euripides
- EHOLD! behold!
- Now they come, they quit the nest
- On Parnassus' topmost crest.
- Hence! away! I warn ye all!
- Light not on our hallowed wall!
- From eave and cornice keep aloof,
- And from the golden gleaming roof!
- Herald of Jove! of birds the king!
- Fierce of talon, strong of wing,
- Hence! begone! or thou shalt know
- The terrors of this deadly bow.
- Lo! where rich the altar fumes,
- Soars yon swan on oary plumes.
- Hence, and quiver in thy flight
- Thy foot that gleams with purple light,
- Even though Phoebus' harp rejoice
- To mingle with thy tuneful voice;
- Far away thy white wings shake
- O'er the silver Delian lake.
- Hence! obey! or end in blood
- The music of thy sweet-voiced ode.
-
- Away! away! another stoops!
- Down his flagging pinion droops;
- Shall our marble eaves be hung
- With straw nests for your callow young?
- Hence, or dread this twanging bow,
- Hence, where Alpheus' waters flow.
- Or the Isthmian groves among
- Go and rear your nestling young.
- Hence, nor dare pollute or stain
- Phoebus' offerings, Phoebus' fane.
- Yet I feel a sacred dread,
- Lest your scattered plumes I shed;
- Holy birds! 't is yours to show
- Heaven's auguries to men below.
This English translation, by Henry
Hart Milman, of 'Ion and the Birds' is reprinted from Greek
Poets in English Verse. Ed. William Hyde Appleton. Cambridge:
The Riverside Press, 1893. |
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