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(Author Uncertain.)1
Who
will for me in fitting strain adapt
Field-haunting
muses? and with flowers will grace
The
spring-tide's rosy gales? And who will give
The
summer harvest's heavy stalks mature?
5
And to the autumn's vines their swollen grapes?
Or
who in winter's honour will commend
The
olives, ever-peaceful? and will ope
Waters
renewed, even at their fountainheads?
And
cut from waving grass the leafy flowers?
10
Forthwith the breezes of celestial light
I
will attune. Now be it granted me
To
meet the lightsome2 muses! to disclose
The
secret rivers on the fluvial top
Of
Helicon,3 and gladsome woods that grow
15'Neath
other star.4 And simultaneously
I
will attune in song the eternal flames;
Whence
the sea fluctuates with wave immense:
What
power5 moves
the solid lands to quake;
And
whence the golden light first shot its rays
20
On the new world; or who from gladsome clay
Could
man have moulded; whence in empty world6
Our
race could have upgrown; and what the greed
Of
living which each people so inspires;
What
things for ill created are; or what
25
Death's propagation; whence have rosy wreaths
Sweet
smell and ruddy hue; what makes the vine
Ferment
in gladsome grapes away; and makes
Full
granaries by fruit of slender stalks distended be; or makes the tree grow ripe
30
'Mid ice, with olives black; who gives to seeds
Their
increments of vigour various;
And
with her young's soft shadowings protects
The
mother. Good it is all things to know
Which
wondrous are in nature, that it may
35
Be granted us to recognise through all
The
true Lord, who light, seas, sky, earth prepared,
And
decked with varied star the new-made world;7
And
first bade beasts and birds to issue forth;
And
gave the ocean's waters to be stocked
40
With fish; and gathered in a mass the sands,
With
living creatures fertilized. Such strains
With
stately8 muses
will I spin, and waves
Healthful
will from their fountainheads disclose:
And
may this strain of mine the gladsome shower
45
Catch, which from placid clouds doth come, and flows
Deeply
and all unsought into men's souls,
And
guide it into our new-fumed lands
In
copious rills.9 Now come: if any one
Still
ignorant of God, and knowing naught
50
Of life to come,10 would fain attain to touch
The
care-effacing living nymph, and through
The
swift waves' virtue his lost life repair,
And'scape
the penalties of flame eterne,11
And
rather win the guerdons of the life
55
To come, let such remember God is One,
Alone
the object of our prayers; who 'neath
His
threshold hath the whole world poised; Himself
Eternally
abiding, and to be
Alway
for aye; holding the ages12 all;
60
Alone, before all ages;13 unbegotten,
Limitless
God; who holds alone His seat
Supernal;
supereminent alone
Above
high heavens; omnipotent alone;
Whom
all things do obey; who for Himself
65
Formed, when it pleased Him, man for aye; and gave
Him
to be pastor of beasts tame, and lord
Of
wild; who by a word14 could stretch forth heaven;
And
with a word could solid earth suspend;
And
quicklier than word15 had the seas wave
70
Disjoined;16 and man's dear form with His own hands
Did
love to mould; and furthermore did will
His
own fair likeness17 to exist in him;
And
by His Spirit on his countenance
The
breath18 of life
did breathe. Unmindful he
75
Of God, such guilt rashly t' incur I Beyond
The
warning's range he was not ought to touch.19
One
fruit illicit, whence he was to know
Forthwith
how to discriminate alike
Evil
and equity, God him forbade
80
To touch. What functions of the world20 did God
Permit
to man, and sealed the sweet sweet pledge
Of
His own love! and jurisdiction gave
O'er
birds, and granted him both deep and soil
To
tame, and mandates useful did impart
85
Of dear salvation!'Neath his sway He gave
The
lands, the souls of flying things, the race
Feathered,
and every race, or tame or wild,
Of
beasts, and the sea's race, and monsterforms
Shapeless
of swimming things. But since so soon
90
The primal man by primal crime transgressed
The
law, and left the mandates of the Lord
(Led
by a wife who counselled all the ills),
By
death he 'gan to perish. Woman 'twas
Who
sin's first ill committed, and (the law
95
Transgressed) deceived her husband. Eve, induced
By
guile, the thresholds oped to death, and proved
To
her own self, with her whole race as well,
A
procreatrix of funereal woes.
Hence
unanticipated wickedness,
100
Hence death, like seed, for aye, is scattered. Then
More
frequent grew atrocious deed; and toil
More
savage set the corrupt orb astir:
(This
lure the crafty serpent spread, inspired
By
envy's self:) then peoples more invent
105
Practices of ill deeds; and by ill deeds
Gave
birth to seeds of wickedness.
And
so
The
only Lord. whose is the power supreme.
Who
o'er the heights the summits holds of heaven
Supreme,
and in exalted regions dwells
110
In lofty light for ages, mindful too
Of
present time, and of futurity
Prescient
beforehand, keeps the progeny
Of
ill-desert, and all the souls which move
By
reason's force much-erring manf-nor less
115
Their tardy bodies governs He-against
The
age decreed, so soon as, stretched in death,
Men
lay aside their ponderous limbs, and light
As
air, shall go, their earthly bonds undone,
And
take in diverse parts their proper spheres
120
(But some He bids be forthwith by glad gales
Recalled
to life, and be in secret kept
To
wait the decreed law's awards, until
Their
bodies with resuscitated limbs
Revive.21 ) Then shall men 'gin to weigh the
awards
125
Of their first life, and on their crime and faults
To
think, and keep them for their penalties
Which
will be far from death; and mindful grow
Of
pious duties, by God's judgments taught;
To
wait expectant for their penalty
130
And their descendants', fruit of their own crime;
Or
else to live wholly the life of sheep,22
Without
a name; and in God's ear, now deaf,
Pour
unavailing weeping. Shall not God
Almighty,
'neath whose law are all things ruled,
135
Be able after death life to restore?
Or
is there ought which the creation's Lord
Unable
seems to do? If, darkness chased,
He
could outstretch the light, and could compound
All
the world's mass by a word suddenly,
140
And raise by potent voice all things from nought,
Why
out of somewhat23 could He not compound
The
well-known shape which erst had been, which He
Had
moulded formerly; and bid the form
Arise
assimilated to Himself
145
Again? Since God's are all things, earth the more
Gives
Him all back; for she will, when He bids,
Unweave
whate'er she woven had before.
If
one, perhaps, laid on sepulchral pyre,
The
flame consumed; or one in its blind waves
150
The ocean have dismembered; if of one
The
entrails have, in hunger, satisfied
The
fishes; or on any's limbs wild beasts
Have
fastened cruel death; or any's blood,
His
body reft by birds, unhid have lain:
155
Yet shall they not wrest from the mighty Lord
His
latest dues. Need is that men appear
Quickened
from death 'fore God, and at His bar
Stand
in their shapes resumed. Thus arid seeds
Are
drops into the vacant lands, and deep
160
In the fixt furrows die and rot: and hence
Is
not their surface24 animated soon
With
stalks repaired? and do they25 not grow strong
And
yellow with the living grains? and, rich
With
various usury,26 new harvests rise
165
In mass? The stars all set, and, born again,
Renew
their sheen; and day dies with its light
Lost
in dense night; and now night wanes herself
As
light unveils creation presently;
And
now another and another day
170
Rises from its own stars; and the sun sets,
Bright
as it is with splendour-bearing light;
Light
perishes when by the coming eve
The
world27 is
shaded; and the phoenix lives
By
her own soot28 renewed, and presently
175
Rises, again a bird, O wondrous sight!
After
her burnings! The bare tree in time
Shoots
with her leaves; and once more are her boughs
Curved
by the germen of the fruits. While then
The
world29
throughout is trembling at God's voice,
180
And deeply moved are the high air's powers,30
Then
comes a crash unwonted, then ensue
Heaven's
mightiest murmurs, on the approach of God,
The
whole world's31 Judge! His countless ministers
Forthwith
conjoin their rushing march, and God
185
With majesty supernal fence around.
Angelic
bands will from the heaven descend
To
earth; all, God's host, whose is faculty
Divine;
in form and visage spirits all
Of
virtue: in them fiery vigour is;
190
Rutilant are their bodies; heaven's might
Divine
about them flashes; the whole orb
Hence
murmurs; and earth, trembling to her depths
(Or
whatsoe'er her bulk is32 ), echoes back
The
roar, parturient of men, whom she,
195
Being bidden, will with grief upyield.33 All stand
In
wonderment. At last disturbed are
The
clouds, and the stars move and quake from height
Of
sudden power.34 When thus God comes, with voice
Of
potent sound, at once throughout all realms
200
The sepulchres are burst, and every ground
Outpours
bones from wide chasms, and opening sand
Outbelches
living peoples; to the hair35
The
members cleave; the bones inwoven are
With
marrow; the entwined sinews rule
205
The breathing bodies; and the veins 'gin throb
With
simultaneously infused blood:
And,
from their caves dismissed, to open day
Souls
are restored, and seek to find again
Each
its own organs, as at their own place
210
They rise. O wondrous faith! Hence every age
Shoots
forth; forth shoots from ancient dust the host
Of
dead. Regaining light, there rise again
Mothers,
and sires, and high-soured youths, and boys,
And
maids unwedded; and deceased old men
215
Stand by with living souls; and with the cries
Of
babes the groaning orb resounds.36 Then tribes
Various
from their lowest seats will come:
Bands
of the Easterns; those which earth's extreme
Sees;
those which dwell in the downsloping clime
220
Of the mid-world, and hold the frosty star's
Riphaean
citadels. Every colonist
Of
every land stands frighted here: the boor;
The
son of Atreus37 with his diadem
Of
royalty put off; the rich man mixt
225
Coequally in line with pauper peers.
Deep
tremor everywhere: then groans the orb
With
prayers; and peoples stretching forth their hands
Grow
stupid with the din! The Lord Himself
Seated,
is bright with light sublime; and fire
230
Potent in all the Virtues38 flashing shines.
And
on His high-raised throne the Heavenly One
Coruscates
from His seat; with martyrs hemmed
(A
dazzling troop of men), and by His seers
Elect
accompanied (whose bodies bright
235
Effulgent are with snowy stoles), He towers
Above
them. And now priests in lustrous robes
Attend,
who wear upon their marked39 front
Wreaths
golden-red; and all submissive kneel
And
reverently adore. The cry of all
240
Is one: "O Holy, Holy Holy, God!"
To
these40 the
Lord will mandate give, to range
The
people in twin lines; and orders them
To
set apart by number the depraved;
While
such as have His biddings followed
245
With placid words He calls, and bids them, clad
With
vigour-death quite conquered-ever dwell
Amid
light's inextinguishable airs,
Stroll
through the ancients' ever blooming realm,
Through
promised wealth, through ever sunny swards,
250
And in bright body spend perpetual life.
A
place there is, beloved of the Lord,
In
Eastern coasts, where light is bright and clear,
And
healthier blows the breeze; day is eterne,
Time
changeless: 'tis a region set apart
255
By God, most rich in plains, and passing blest,
In
the meridian41 of His cloudless seat.
There
gladsome the air, and is in light
Ever
to be; soft is the wind, and breathes
Life-giving
blasts; earth, fruitful with a soil
260
Luxuriant, bears all things; in the meads
Flowers
shed their fragrance; and upon the plains
The
purple-not in envy-mingles all
With
golden-ruddy light. One gladsome flower,
With
its own lustre clad, another clothes;
265
And here with many a seed the dewy fields
Are
dappled, and the snowy tilths are crisped
With
rosy flowers. No region happier
Is
known in other spots; none which in look
Is
fairer, or in honour more excels.
270
Never in flowery gardens are there born
Such
lilies, nor do such upon our plains
Outbloom;
nor does the rose so blush, what time,
New-born,
'tis opened by the breeze; nor is
The
purple with such hue by Tyrian dye
275
Imbued. With coloured pebbles beauteous gleams
The
gem: here shines the prasinus;42 there glows
The
carbuncle; and giant-emerald
Is
green with grassy light. Here too are born
The
cinnamons, with odoriferous twigs;
280
And with dense leaf gladsome amomum Joins
Its
fragrance. Here, a native, lies the gold
Of
radiant sheen; and lofty groves reach heaven
In
blooming time, and germens fruitfullest
Burden
the living boughs. No glades like these
285
Hath Ind herself forth-stretcht; no tops so dense
Rears
on her mount the pine; nor with a shade
So
lofty-leaved is her cypress crisped;
Nor
better in its season blooms her bough
In
spring-tide. Here black firs on lofty peak
290
Bloom; and the only woods that know no hail
Are
green eternally: no foliage falls;
At
no time fails the flower. There, too, there blooms
A
flower as red as Tarsine purple is:
A
rose, I ween, it is (red hue it has,
295
An odour keen); such aspect on its leaves
It
wears, such odour breathes. A tree it43 stands,
With
a new flower, fairest in fruits; a crop
Life-giving,
dense, its happy strength does yield.
Rich
honies with green cane their fragrance Join,
300
And milk flows potable in runners full;
And
with whate'er that sacred earth is green,
It
all breathes life; and there Crete's healing gift44
Is
sweetly redolent. tide,
Flows
in the placid plains a fount: four floods
305
Thence water parted lands.45 The garden robed
With
flowers, I wot, keeps ever spring; no cold
Of
wintry star varies the breeze; and earth,
After
her birth-throes, with a kindlier blast
Repairs.
Night there is none; the stars maintain
310
Their darkness; angers, envies, and dire greed
Are
absent; and out-shut is fear, and cares
Driven
from the threshold. Here the Evil One
Is
homeless; he is into worthy courts
Out-gone,
nor is't e'er granted him to touch
315
The glades forbidden. But here ancient faith
Rests
in elect abode; and life here treads,
Joying
in an eternal covenant;
And
health46 without
a care is gladsome here
In
placid tilths, ever to live and be
320
Ever in light.
Here
whosoe'er hath lived
Pious,
and cultivant of equity
And
goodness; who hath feared the thundering God
With
mind sincere; with sacred duteousness
Tended
his parents; and his other life47
325
Spent ever crimeless; or who hath consoled
With
faithful help a friend in indigence;
Succoured
the over-toiling needy one,
As
orphans' patron, and the poor man's aid;
Rescued
the innocent, and succoured them
330
When press with accusation; hath to guests
His
ample table's pledges given; hath done
All
things divinely; pious offices
Enjoined;
done hurt to none; ne'er coveted
Another's:
such as these, exulting all
335
In divine praises, and themselves at once
Exhorting,
raise their voices to the stars;
Thanksgivings
to the Lord in joyous wise
They
psalming celebrate; and they shall go
Their
harmless way with comrade messengers.
340
When ended hath the Lord these happy gifts,
And
likewise sent away to realms eterne
The
just, then comes a pitiable crowd
Wailing
its crimes; with parching tears it pours
All
groans effusely, and attests48 in acts
345
With frequent ululations. At the sight
Of
flames, their merit's due, and stagnant pools
Of
fire, wrath's weapons, they 'gin tremble all.49
Them
an angelic host, upsnatching them,
Forbids
to pray, forbids to pour their cries
350
(Too late!) with clamour loud: pardon withheld,
Into
the lowest bottom they are hurled!
O
miserable men! how oft to you
Hath
Majesty divine made itself known!
The
sounds of heaven ye have heard; have seen
355
Its lightnings; have experienced its rains
Assiduous;
its ires of winds and hail!
How
often nights and days serene do make
Your
seasons-God's gifts-fruitful with fair yields!
Roses
were vernal; the grain's summer-tide
360
Failed not; the autumn variously poured
Its
mellow fruits; the rugged winter brake
The
olives, icy though they were: 'twas God
Who
granted all, nor did His goodness fail.
At
God earth trembled; on His voice the deep
365
Hung, and the rivers trembling fled and left
Sands
dry; and every creature everywhere
Confesses
God! Ye (miserable men!)
Have
heaven's Lord and earth's denied; and oft
(Horrible!)
have God's heralds put to flight;50
370
And rather slain the just with slaughter fell;
And,
after crime, fraud ever hath in you
Inhered.
Ye then shall reap the natural fruit
Of
your iniquitous sowing. That God is
Ye
know; yet are ye wont to laugh at Him.
375
Into deep darkness ye shall go of fire
And
brimstone; doomed to suffer glowing ires
In
torments just.51 God bids your bones descend
To52 penalty eternal; go beneath
The
ardour of an endless raging hell;53
380
Be urged, a seething mass, through rotant pools
Of
flame; and into threatening flame He bids
The
elements convert; and all heaven's fire
Descend
in clouds. 3 Then greedy Tartarus
With
rapid fire enclosed is; and flame
385
Is fluctuant within with tempest waves;
And
the whole earth her whirling embers blends!
There
is a flamy furrow; teeth acute
Are
turned to plough it, and for all the years54
The
fiery torrent will be armed: with force
390
Tartarean will the conflagrations gnash
Their
teeth upon the world.55 There are they scorched
In
seething tide with course precipitate;
Hence
flee; thence back are borne in sharp career;
The
savage flame's ire meets them fugitive!
395
And now at length they own the penalty
Their
own, the natural issue of their crime.
And
now the reeling earth, by not a swain
Possest,
is by the sea's profundity
Prest,
at her farthest limit, where the sun
400
(His ray out-measured) divides the orb,
And
where, when traversed is the world,56 the stars
Are
hidden. Ether thickens. O'er the light
Spreads
sable darkness; and the latest flames
Stagnate
in secret rills. A place there is
405
Whose nature is with sealed penalties
Fiery,
and a dreadful marsh white-hot
With
heats infernal, where, in furnaces
Horrific,
penal deed roars loud, and seethes,
And,
rushing into torments, is up-caught
410
By the flame's vortex wide; by savage wave
And
surge the turbid sand all mingled is
With
miry bottom. Hither will be sent,
Groaning,
the captive crowd of evil ones,
And
wickedness (the sinful body's train)
415
To burn! Great is the beating there of breasts,
By
bellowing of grief accompanied;
Wild
is the hissing of the flames, and thence
The
ululation of the sufferers!
And
flames, and limbs sonorous,57 will outrise
420
Afar: more fierce will the fire burn; and up
To
th' upper air the groaning will be borne.
Then
human progeny its bygone deeds
Of
ill will weigh; and will begin to stretch
Heavenward
its palms; and then will wish to know
425
The Lord, whom erst it would not know, what time
To
know Him had proved useful to them There,
His
life's excesses, handiworks unjust,
And
crimes of savage mind, each will confess,
And
at the knowledge of the impious deeds
430
of his own life will shudder. And now first,
Whoe'er
erewhile cherished ill thoughts of God;
Had
worshipped stones unsteady, lyingly
Pretending
to divinity; hath e'er
Made
sacred to gore-stained images
435
Altars; hath voiceless pictured figures feared;
Hath
slender shades of false divinity
Revered;
whome'er ill error onward hath
Seduced;
whoe'er was an adulterer,
Or
with the sword had slain his sons; whoe'er
440
Had stalked in robbery; whoe'er by fraud
His
clients had deferred; whoe'er with mind
Unfriendly
had behaved himself, or stained
His
palms with blood of men, or poison mixt
Wherein
death lurked, or robed with wicked guise
445
His breast, or at his neighbour's ill, or gain
Iniquitous,
was wont to joy; whoe'er
Committed
whatsoever wickedness
Of
evil deeds: him mighty heat shall rack,
And
bitter fire; and these all shall endure,
450
In passing painful death, their punishment.
Thus
shall the vast crowd lie of mourning men!
This
oft as holy prophets sang of old,
And
(by God's inspiration warned) oft told
The
future, none ('tis pity!) none (alas!)
455
Did lend his ears. But God Almighty willed
His
guerdons to be known, and His law's threats
'Mid
multitudes of such like signs promulged.
He
'stablished them58 by sending prophets more,
These
likewise uttering words divine; and some,
460
Roused from their sleep, He bids go from their tombs
Forth
with Himself, when He, His own tomb burst,
Had
risen. Many 'wildered were, indeed,
To
see the tombs agape, and in clear light
Corpses
long dead appear; and, wondering
465
At their discourses pious, dulcet words!
Starward
they stretch their palms at the mere sound,59
And
offer God and so-victorious Christ
Their
gratulating homage. Certain 'tis
That
these no more re-sought their silent graves,
470
Nor were retained within earth's bowels shut;60
But
the remaining host reposes now
In
lowliest beds, until-time's circuit run -
That
great day do arrive. Now all of you
Own
the true Lord, who alone makes this soul
475
Of ours to see His light,61 and can the same
(To
Tartarus sent) subject to penalties;
And
to whom all the power of life and death
Is
open. Learn that God can do whate'er
He
list; for 'tis enough for Him to will,
480
And by mere speaking He achieves the deed;
And
Him nought plainly, by withstanding, checks.
He
is my God alone, to whom I trust
With
deepest senses. But, since death con
Every
career, let whoe'er is to-day
485
Bethink him over all things in his mind.
And
thus, while life remains, while 'tis allowed
To
see the light and change your life, before
The
limit of allotted age o'ertake
You
unawares, and that last day, which62 is
490
By death's law fixt, your senseless eyes do glaze,
Seek
what remains worth seeking: watchful be
For
dear salvation; and run down with ease
And
certainty the good course. Wipe away
By
pious sacred rites your past misdeeds
495
Which expiation need; and shun the storms,
The
too uncertain tempests, of the world.63
Then
turn to right paths, and keep sanctities.
Hence
from your gladsome minds depraved crime
Quite
banish; and let long-inveterate fault
500
Be washed forth from your breast; and do away
Wicked
ill-stains contracted; and appease
Dread
God by prayers eternal; and let all
Most
evil mortal things to living good
Give
way: and now at once a new life keep
505
Without a crime; and let your minds begin
To
use themselves to good things and to true:
And
render ready voices to God's praise.
Thus
shall your piety find better things
All
growing to a flame; thus shall ye, too,
510
Receive the gifts of the celestial life;64
And,
to long age, shall ever live with God,
Seeing the
starry kingdom's golden joys.
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