Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

EXERCISE LXXVIII. (Hemans).

They grew in beauty side by side,
They fill'd one home with glee:
Their graves are sever'd far and wide,
By mount, and stream, and sea.

The same fond mother bent at night
O'er each fair sleeping brow;

She had each folded flower in sight-
Where are those dreamers now?

Stanza 1. 1, 2. That band grew up most lovely with one training (cultus); one house resounded with their joyous laughter (pl. Poet. Orn. a).-3, 4. Their limbs now lie buried in a separate (non unus) tomb; mountain, sea, [and] river, have their parted ashes.

Stanza II. 1, 2. One mother bent (se flecto) at night over her loved ones; she gave kisses to their sleeping (sopitus) brows; -3, 4. Before her eyes each flower closed its tender bud (calyx): O where sleeps now the bud closed as before?

Observe the turning of Stanza II. line 4. It would be useless to attempt a literal translation.

EXERCISE LXXIX. (same continued).

One 'midst the forests of the West
By a dark stream is laid:

The Indian knows his place of rest,
Far in the cedar shade.

The the blue lone sea,
sea,

hath one;

He lies where pearls lie deep:

He was the loved of all,-yet none

O'er his low bed may weep.

Stanza I. 1, 2. One (alter) lies amid Western forests, by a river which rolls its dark (ferrugineus) waters to the sea ;—3, 4.

The Indian tribe (gens) that-knows-the-secret (conscius) points out (Poet. Orn. B) the quiet spot (sedes): and the dark cedar o'er-shadows the hallowed ground.

Stanza II. 1, 2. Another sleeps sunk in the deep-blue waves, where many a pearl shines amid the depths (latebræ).—3, 4. He had been a youth most dear beyond (ante) all others; but no tear bedews his hidden resting-place (cubile).

EXERCISE LXXX. (same continued).

One sleeps where Southern vines are drest,
Above the noble slain :

He wrapp'd his colours round his breast
On a blood-red field of Spain.

And one-o'er her the myrtle showers
Its leaves, by soft winds fann'd;
She faded 'midst Italian flowers,

The last of that bright band!

Stanza 1. 1, 2. A third (hic) is-laid a hero, and amid heroes, towards the South (ad Austros), where the vine is-green dressed (putatus) by the curved pruning-knife (falx).—3, 4. He fell, a soldier having his breast folded (implicitus pectora) with his colours (vexillum), and dyed the Spanish ground with his crimson blood.

Stanza II. 1, 2. A fourth (illa) lies-dead: o'er her bones the myrtle scatters a garland, as the breeze gently fans its tender leaves:-3, 4. She wasted away gradually amid Italian gardens, the last hope and ornament (spes-que decus-que) of the merry band.

Observe the construction of "implicitus pectora." Also observe the double"-que" in Stanza II. 4. See Aids III.

EXERCISE LXXXI. (same continued).
And parted thus they rest, who play'd
Beneath the same green tree;
Whose voices mingled as they pray'd
Around one parent knee.

They that with smiles lit up the hall,
And cheer'd with song the hearth :-
Alas! for Love, if thou wert all—

And nought beyond, O Earth!

Stanza 1. 1, 2. Thus now (hodiè), though-accustomed to playtogether under the green shade, the once united band lies parted (dissociatus).-3, 4. [The band] which formerly with bent knee before a mother's feet, repeated (reddo) mingled prayers with infant (tener) mouth.

Stanza II. 1, 2. A parted band,—although with smiles (line 2) it had cheered (hilaro) the hall, and joyous with song [had cheered] the paternal hearth.-3, 4. Alas me! if love is mortal, what will it avail to have loved? if Earth has nought besides to give (quod addat).

Observe in Stanza II. 1 the repetition from Stanza 1. 2.

EXERCISE LXXXII. (Cowper).

The poplars are fell'd; farewell to the shade
And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade;
The winds play no longer and sing in their leaves,
Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives.

Twelve years have elapsed since I last took a view
Of my favourite field, and the bank where they grew;
And now in the grass behold they are laid,

And the tree is my seat that once lent me a shade.

The blackbird has fled to another retreat,
Where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat;
And the scene where his melody charm'd me before
Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.

Stanza I. 1, 2. The leafy bowers (umbraculum) of the poplar (adj.) wood have fallen: the murmurs are-hushed through the cool grove.-3, 4. The Zephyr's sport is-gone (absum): the leaves have laid-aside their whispers, and Ūsa gives not back

(nec refert) the view which it did before (See Exercise LIX. note).

Stanza II. 1, 2. Since (ut) I revisited the well-known woodlands and beloved fields two lustres have been added to two years.-3, 4. Behold, the grass is now strewn with the felled timber (dejecta arbor), and [the tree] which was formerly my shade gives me a seat.

Stanza III. 1, 2. Now far from hence the fugitive blackbirds seek new retreats (tecta), where the hazel wood (silva colurna) screens (levo) the sun's rays.-3, 4. The sweet ditties (querela) which formerly pleased me are silent (perf.); nor does their liquid melody resound now, as it did before.

Observe the use of "ut: = ex quo" (tempore)-" from the time when," "ever since," in Stanza II.-Also observe the method of expressing a number of years by lustres. A lustrum, a period of five years.

EXERCISE LXXXIII. (same continued).

My fugitive years are all hasting away,
And I must ere long lie as lowly as they,
With a turf on my breast and a stone at my head,
Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead.

The change both my heart and my fancy employs :
I reflect on the frailty of man and his joys:
Short-lived as we are, yet our pleasures, we see,
Have a still shorter date, and die sooner than we.

Stanza I. 1, 2. But Time (Ætas) passes with swift, too swift a foot; I myself shall fall as (modo quo) the trunks have fallen.3,4. I shall have my breast (pl.) covered with turf (pl.), my head with a stone, before that (ante-quàm) another-such (par) wood shall arise (orta erit) in the accustomed place.—“ breast”"head," to be in the accusative with "recondar," middle construction. Compare Exercise LXXX. Stanza 1. 3.

Stanza II. 1, 2. These changes have taught me ever in (sub) mindful breast to reflect (volvo), how (uti) our joys hasten to die.-3, 4. Life indeed is short; still pleasure more short-lived

[blocks in formation]

with "duo," acc. pl., for which cf. Virg. Æn. xi. 285.

perishes before (ante-quàm) they perish who have enjoyed it (rapio). "Ante" belongs to line 3.

EXERCISE LXXXIV. (Herrick).

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a flying:

And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of Heaven, the Sun,

The higher he's a getting,

The sooner will his race be run,

The nearer he's to setting.

Stanza I. 1, 2. Gather flowers, O nymphs, gather them quickly while ye may (dum fas est): whilst I speak, the hour is flying not-to-be-recalled again.-3, 4. And the rose which to-day blows (sese pando) in happy gardens, to-morrow a-dying (moribundus) will droop its tender head.

Stanza II. 1, 2. The higher (quò sublimiùs) Phœbus with his lamp scales (occupo) the citadels of heaven, and urges more aloft (altiùs) his bright steeds." Occupo," in line 2.—3, 4. The sooner (hoc citius) he will hasten to reach the well-known goal, sooner will he depart sunk in the Hesperian waters.

Observe the repetition of the verb in Stanza I. 1. See Poet. Orn. 2.

EXERCISE LXXXV. (same continued).
That age is best which is the first,

When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time;
And, while ye may, go marry :
For having lost but once your prime,.
Ye may for ever tarry.

« НазадПродовжити »