Oh 't is from him the transport flows, Behold! - my boys a goblet bear, Then let me quaff the foamy tide, To hearts that court the phantom Care, ræa, the name of Venus, παρὰ τὸ κεύθειν τοὺς poras, which seems to hint that "Love's fairy favors are lost, when not concealed." 1 Alas, alas, in ways so dark, 'T is only wine can strike a spark! The brevity of life allows arguments for the voluptuary as well as the moralist. Among many parallel passages which Longepierre has adduced, I shall content myself with this epigram from the "Anthologia ": λουσάμενοι, Προδίκη, πυκασώμεθα, καὶ τὸν ἄκρατον ἕλκωμεν, κύλικας μείζονας ἀράμενοι. ῥαῖος ὁ χαιρόντων ἐστὶ βίος, εἶτα τὰ λοῖπα γῆρας κωλύσει, καὶ τὸ τέλος θάνατος. Of which the following is a paraphrase: Let's fly, my love, from noonday's beam, To plunge us in yon cooling stream; Then, hastening to the festal bower, We 'll pass in mirth the evening hour; 'Tis thus our age of bliss shall fly, As sweet, though passing as that sigh, Which seems to whisper o'er your lip, "Come, while you may, of rapture sip." For age will steal the graceful form, Will chill the pulse, while throbbing warm; And death- alas! that hearts, which thrill Like yours and mine, should e'er be still! I KNOW that Heaven hath sent me here, And all the path I 've yet to go, I neither know nor ask to know. 2 Snows may o'er his head be flung, But his heart- his heart is young. Saint Pavin makes the same distinction in a sonnet to a young girl. Je sais bien que les destinées Il est jeune et n'est que du jour, When first I set my eyes on thee! Longepierre quotes here an epigram from the 'Anthologia," on account of the similarity of a particular phrase. Though by no means Anacreontic, it is marked by an interesting simplicity which has induced me to paraphrase it, and may atone for its intrusion. ἐλπὶς καὶ σὺ τύχη μέγα χαίρετε, τὸν λίμεν εὗρον. οὐδὲν ἐμοῖ χ ̓ ὑμῖν, παίζετε τοὺς μετ' ἐμέ. At length to Fortune, and to you, I'll gather Joy's luxuriant flowers, And gild with bliss my fading hours; Bacchus shall bid my winter bloom, And Venus dance me to the tomb! 1 ODE XLI. WHEN Spring adorns the dewy scene, To walk, at noontide, through the grove,2 ODE XLII.3 YES, be the glorious revel mine, 1 Bacchus shall bid my winter bloom, And Venus dance me to the tomb! The same commentator has quoted an epitaph, written upon our poet by Julian, in which he makes him promulgate the precepts of good fellowship even from the tomb. πολλάκι μὲν τόδ' ἄεισα, καὶ ἐκ τύμβου δὲ βοήσω, πίνετε, πρὶν ταύτην ἀμφιβάλησθε κόνιν. This lesson oft in life I sung, And from my grave I still shall cry, "Drink, mortal, drink, while time is young, Ere death has made thee cold as I." 2 And with some maid, who breathes but love, To walk, at noontide, through the grove. Thus Horace : Quid habes illius, illius Lib. iv. Carm. 13. 3 The character of Anacreon is here very strikingly depicted. His love of social, harmonized pleasures, is expressed with a warmth, amiable and endearing. Among the epigrams imputed to Anacreon is the following; it is the only one worth translation, and it breathes the same sentiments with this ode: οὐ φίλος, ὁς κρητῆρι παρὰ πλέω οἰνοποτάζων, νείκεα καὶ πολεμὸν δακρυόεντα λέγει. ἀλλ ̓ ὅστις Μουσεῶν τε, καὶ αγλαὰ δῶρ ̓ Αφροδίτης συμμίσγων, ἐρατῆς μνήσκεται εὐφροσύνης. When to the lip the brimming cup is prest, And hearts are all afloat upon its stream, Then banish from my board the unpolished guest, Who makes the feats of war his barbarous theme. But bring the man, who o'er his goblet wreathes Respecting the barbiton a host of authorities may be collected, which, after all, leave us ignorant of the nature of the instrument. There is scarcely any point upon which we are so totally uninformed as the music of the ancients. The authors extant upon the subject are, I imagine, little understood; and certainly if one of their moods was a progression by quarter-tones, which we are told was the nature of the enharmonic scale, simplicity was by no means the characteristic of their melody; for this is a nicety of progression of which modern music is not susceptible. The invention of the barbiton is, by Athenæus, attributed to Anacreon. See his fourth book, where it is called τὸ εὔρημα τοῦ ̓Ανακρέοντος. Neanthes of Cyzicus, as quoted by Gyraldus, as * Collected by Meibomius. serts the same. Vide Chabot, in Horat. on the words Lesboum barbiton, in the first ode. 1 And oh, the sadness in his sigh, Longepierre has quoted here an epigram from the "Anthologia ": κούρη τις μ' ἐφίλησε ποθέσπερα χείλεσιν ὑγροῖς. νέκταρ ἔην τὸ φίλημα, τὸ γὰρ στόμα νέκταρος ἔπνει. νῦν μεθύω τὸ φίλημα, πολὺν τὸν ἔρωτα πεπωκώς. Of which the following paraphrase may give some idea: The kiss that she left on my lip, Like a dew-drop shall lingering lie 'T was nectar she gave me to sip, 'T was nectar I drank in her sigh. From the moment she printed that kiss, 2 It seems as Love himself had come The introduction of these deities to the festival is merely allegorical. Madame Dacier thinks that the poet describes a masquerade, where these deities were personated by the company in masks. The translation will conform with either idea. 3 All, all are here, to hail with me In the bowl of Bacchus steep, Drink and smile, and learn to think Even the Gods, who walk the sky, When with the blushing, sister Graces, Wreathing my brow with rose and vine, I lead some bright nymph through the dance,6 Commingling soul with every glance! Compare with this ode [says the German annotator] the beautiful ode of Uz, ' Die Rose."" 5 When with the blushing, sister Graces, The wanton winding dance he traces. "This sweet idea of Love dancing with the Graces, is almost peculiar to Anacreon.". Degen. 6 I lead some bright nymph through the dance, etc. The epithet βαθύκολπος, which he gives to the nymph, is literally "full-bosomed." Then let us never vainly stray,1 And in the goblet, rich and deep, ODE XLVI.2 BEHOLD, the young, the rosy Spring, Gives to the breeze her scented wing: While virgin Graces, warm with May; Fling roses o'er her dewy way.3 1 Then let us never vainly stray, In search of thorns, from pleasure's way; etc. I have thus endeavored to convey the meaning of τί δὲ τὸν βίον πλάνωμαι; according to Regnier's paraphrase of the line : E che val, fuor della strada 2 The fastidious affectation of some commentators has denounced this ode as spurious. Degen pronounces the four last lines to be the patch-work of some miserable versificator, and Brunck condemns the whole ode. It appears to me, on the contrary, to be elegantly graphical; full of delicate expressions and luxuriant imagery. The abruptness of ἰδὲ πῶς ἔαρος φανέντος is striking and spirited, and has been imitated rather languidly by Horace: Vides ut alta stet nive candidum The imperative idé is infinitely more impressive; as in Shakspeare, But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill. There is a simple and poetical description of Spring, in Catullus's beautiful farewell to Bithynia. Carm. 44. Barnes conjectures, in his life of our poet, that this ode was written after he had returned from Athens, to settle in his paternal seat at Teos; where, in a little villa at some distance from the city, commanding a view of the Ægean Sea and the islands, he contemplated the beauties of nature and enjoyed the felicities of retirement. Vide Barnes, in "Anac. Vita," § xxxv. supposition, however unauthenticated, forms a pleasing association, which renders the poem more interesting. This Chevreau says, that Gregory Nazianzenus has paraphrased somewhere this description of Spring; but I cannot meet with it. See Chevreau, "Euvres Mêlées." "Compare with this ode [says Degen] the verses of Hagedorn, book fourth, Der Frühling,' and book fifth, Der Mai."" 3 While virgin Graces, warm with May, De Pauw reads, Χάριτας ῥόδα βρύουσιν, “ the roses display their graces. This is not unin The murmuring billows of the deep Now the earth prolific swells ODE XLVII. 'T is true, my fading years decline, The only thyrsus e'er I'll ask! 7 Embrace her in the field of arms; ODE XLVIII. WHEN my thirsty soul I steep, ODE XLIX.3 2 WHEN Bacchus, Jove's immortal boy, cration of the thyrsus to Bacchus, that inebriety often renders the support of a stick very ne cessary. 1 Ivy leaves my brow entwining, etc. "The ivy was consecrated to Bacchus [says Montfaucon], because he formerly lay hid under that tree, or, as others will have it, because its leaves resemble those of the vine." Other reasons for its consecration, and the use of it in garlands at banquets, may be found in Longepierre, Barnes, etc. 2 Arm ye, arm ye, men of might, have adopted the interpretation of Regnier an others: Altri segua Marte fero; Che sol Bacco è 'l mio conforto. The rosy harbinger of joy, Sing, sing of love, let music's sound In melting cadence float around, While, my young Venus, thou and I Responsive to its murmurs sigh. Then, waking from our blissful trance, Again we 'll sport, again we 'll dance.* ODE L.5 WHEN wine I quaff, before my eyes the same character, are merely chansons à boire, the effusions probably of the moment of conviviality, and afterwards sung, we may imagine, with rapture throughout Greece. But that interesting association, by which they always recalled the convivial emotions that produced them, can now be little felt even by the most enthusiastic reader; and much less by a phlegmatic grammarian, who sees nothing in them but dialects and particles. 4 Who, with the sunshine of the bowl, Avaíos is the title which he gives to Bacchus in the original. It is a curious circumstance, that Plutarch mistook the name of Levi among the Jews for Aev (one of the bacchanal cries), and accordingly supposed that they worshipped Bacchus. 5 Faber thinks this ode spurious; but, I believe, he is singular in his opinion. It has all the spirit of our author. Like the wreath which he presented in the dream, "it smells of Anac reon. |