TRANSLATIONS, &c.
149
Fresh on the waves the morning-breezes play, 75
To bear my vessel and my vows away:
With prosp'rous speed I fly before the wind,
And leave the length of Lesbos all behind.
Far distant from my Malean love at last,
(Secure with twenty leagues between us cast) 80
I furl my sails, and on the Sigrian shore,
Adopting that my seat, the vessel moor;
Sigrium, from whose aërial height I spy
The distant fields that bore imperial Troy,
Which, still accurs'd for Helen's broken vow, 85
Produce thin crops, ungrateful to the plow.
I gaze, revolving in my guilty mind
What future vengeance will my falsehood find,
When kings and empires no forgiveness gain'd
For violated rites and faith profan'd! 90
Sea-faring on that coast I led my life,
A commoner of love, without a wife;
Content with casual joys; and vainly thought
Venus forgave the perjur'd, or forgot.
And now my sixtieth year began to shed 95
An undistinguish'd winter o'er my head,
When, bent for Tenedos, a country dame
(I thought her such) for speedy passage came:
A palsy shook her limbs; a shrivell'd skin
But ill conceal'd the skeleton within; 100
A monument of Time: with equal grace
Her garb had poverty to suit her face.
To bear my vessel and my vows away:
With prosp'rous speed I fly before the wind,
And leave the length of Lesbos all behind.
Far distant from my Malean love at last,
(Secure with twenty leagues between us cast) 80
I furl my sails, and on the Sigrian shore,
Adopting that my seat, the vessel moor;
Sigrium, from whose aërial height I spy
The distant fields that bore imperial Troy,
Which, still accurs'd for Helen's broken vow, 85
Produce thin crops, ungrateful to the plow.
I gaze, revolving in my guilty mind
What future vengeance will my falsehood find,
When kings and empires no forgiveness gain'd
For violated rites and faith profan'd! 90
Sea-faring on that coast I led my life,
A commoner of love, without a wife;
Content with casual joys; and vainly thought
Venus forgave the perjur'd, or forgot.
And now my sixtieth year began to shed 95
An undistinguish'd winter o'er my head,
When, bent for Tenedos, a country dame
(I thought her such) for speedy passage came:
A palsy shook her limbs; a shrivell'd skin
But ill conceal'd the skeleton within; 100
A monument of Time: with equal grace
Her garb had poverty to suit her face.
