"Hafte, Sappho, hafte, from high Leucadia throw
"Thy wretched weight, nor dread the deeps below!"
She spoke, and vanish'd with the voice-I rife,
And filent tears fall trickling from my eyes.
I go, ye Nymphs! thofe rocks and feas to prove;
How much I fear, but ah, how much I love!
I go, ye Nymphs, where furious love inspires;
Let female fears fubmit to female fires.
To rocks and feas I fly from Phaon's hate,
And hope from feas and rocks a milder fate.
Ye gentle gales, beneath my body blow,
And foftly lay me on the waves below!
And thou, kind Love, my sinking limbs sustain,
Spread thy foft wings, and waft me o'er the main,
Nor let a lover's death the guiltless flood prophane!
"Nec mora: verfus Amor tetigit lentiffima Pyrrhae
"Pectora; Deucalion igne levatus erat.
"Hanc legem locus ille tenet, pete protinus altam
"Leucada; nec faxo defiluiffe time."
Ut monuit, cum voce abiit. Ego frigida furgo:
Nec gravidae lacrymas continuere genae.
Ibimus, O Nymphae, monftrataque faxa petemus.
Sit procul infano victus amore timor.
Quicquid erit, melius quam nunc erit: aura, fubito.
Et mea non magnum corpora pondus habent.
Tu quoque, mollis Amor, pennas fuppone cadenti:
Ne fim Lucadiae mortua crimen aquae.
Inde chelyn Phoebo communia munera ponam :
Et fub ea verfus unus et alter erunt.
On Phoebus' shrine my harp I'll then bestow,
And this Infcription fhall be plac'd below.
"Here the who fung, to him that did inspire,
Sappho to Phoebus confecrates her Lyre;
"What fuits with Sappho, Phoebus, suits with thee; "The gift, the giver, and the God agree."
But why, alas, relentless youth, ah why To distant feas muft tender Sappho fly?
Thy charms than those may far more powerful be, 220
And Phoebus' felf is lefs a God to me.
Ah! canst thou doom me to the rocks and fea,
O far more faithlefs and more hard than they?
Ah! canft thou rather fee this tender breast
Dash'd on these rocks than to thy bofom prefs'd?
This breaft which once, in vain! you lik'd fo well;
Where the Loves play'd, and where the Mufes dwell.
"Grata lyram pofui tibi, Phoebe, poëtria Sappho :
"Convenit illa mihi, convenit illa tibi.”
Cur tamen Actiacas miferam me mittis ad oras,
Cum profugum poffis ipfe referre pedem?
Tu mihi Leucadia potes effe falubrior unda :
Et forma et meritis tu mihi Phoebus eris.
An potes, ô fcopulis undaque ferocior illa,
Si moriar, titulum mortis habere meae ?
At quanto melius jungi mea pectora tecum,
Quam poterant faxis praecipitanda dari !
Haec funt illa, Phaon, quae tu laudare folebas;
Vifaque funt toties ingeniofa tibi..
Alas! the Mufes now no more inspire,
Untun'd my lute, and filent is my lyre;
My languid numbers have forgot to flow,
And fancy finks beneath a weight of woe.
Ye Lesbian virgins, and ye Lesbian dameș,
Themes of my verse, and objects of my flames,
No more your groves with my glad fongs fhall ring,
No more thefe hands fhall touch the trembling ftring:
My Phaon's fled, and I those arts refign,
(Wretch that I am, to call that Phaon mine!)
Return, fair youth, return, and bring along
Joy to my foul, and vigour to my song:
Abfent from thee, the Poet's flame expires;
But ah! how fiercely burn the Lover's fires?
Gods! can no prayers, no fighs, no numbers, move
One favage heart, or teach it how to love?
Nunc vellem facunda forent: dolor artibus obftat;
Ingeniumque meis fubftitit omne malis.
Non mihi respondent veteres in carmina vires.
Plectra dolore tacent: muta dolore lyra eft.
Lesbides aequoreae, nupturaque nuptaque proles;
Lesbides, Aeolia nomina dicta lyra ;
Lesbides, infamem quae me feciftis amatae ;
Definite ad citharas turba venire meas.
Abftuli omne Phaon, quod vobis ante placebat. (Me miferam dixi quam modo pene, meus !)
Efficite ut redeat: vates quoque veftrą redibit.
Ingenio vires ille dat, ille rapit,
Ecquid ago precibus? pectufne agreste movetur?
An riget? et Zephyri verba caduca ferunt?
The winds my prayers, my fighs, my numbers bear,
The flying winds have loft them all in air!
Oh when, alas! fhall more aufpicious gales
To these fond eyes reftore thy welcome fails?
If you return-ah why these long delays?
Poor Sappho dies while careless Phaon stays.
O launch thy bark, nor fear the watery plain;
Venus for thee fhall fmooth her native main.
O launch thy bark, secure of profperous gales;
Cupid for thee fhall spread the swelling fails.
If you will fly-(yet ah! what cause can be,
Too cruel youth, that you should fly from me?) 255
If not from Phaon I must hope for ease,
Ah let me feek it from the raging feas:
To raging feas unpity'd I'll remove,
And either cease to live, or cease to love!
Qui mea verba ferunt, vellem tua vela referrent.
Hoc te, fi faperes, lente, decebat opus.
Sive redis, puppique tuae votiva parantur
Munera; quid laceras pectora noftra mora ?
Solve ratem: Venus orta mari, mare praeftat eunti.
Aura dabit curfum; tu modo folve ratem.
Ipfe gubernabit refidens in puppe Cupido:
Ipfe dabit tenera vela legetque manu.
Sive juvat longe fugiffe Pelafgida Sappho ;
(Non tamen invenies, cur ego digna fuga.)
[O faltem miferae, Crudelis, epistola dicat:
Ut mihi Leucadiae fata petantur aquae.]
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