CANTO 1
1-42:
(THE POET)
The Cycles with their trails that rise and fall;
Time’s Wheel that knows the height and depth of All,
That bears Fate’s whims and turns not back again,
But whirls with Good and Evil in its train,
The clash of war; the spur of hate and spite;
The rapt embrace and languorous kiss by night;
All these now haunt my mind and bid me tell
The accidents and fortunes that befell
A princess and her lover in the link
Of a romance in which no guile could slink.
And all who love, who hold another dear,
Let them all read what I have written here;
Example may it be and may it prove
That none should underestimate true love;
For he who ever keeps Love’s goal in sight
May grieve at first, but all will finish right.
Then listen well and to my words give heed
To gauge of others the intent and deed:
In long past times, when Greece and Greeks were great,
And when their Faith bowed to another fate,
Into this world a constant love dawned bright
To blend two hearts in its unfailing light,
To sear two ardent hearts in passion’s blaze.
Great feats of arms were dared in those far days
In Athens, still the lodestar of the wise,
The throne of virtues and philosophies.
A mighty Lord then ruled that famous land
And guided it with his unswerving hand;
His name was Heracles, great amongst great,
Protector of all men and of the State,
A King of peerless valour and of worth
Whose word was law, whose fame amazed the earth.
From early youth this Potentate has wed
A mate of whom no slur was ever said;
She was called Artemis, this lovely Queen,
A farer face the sun had never seen,
And, as beside her royal spouse went she,
They were as one in soul and sympathy.
A loving pair, magnanimous and kind,
One single woe was theirs to fret the mind:
No child had they to bless their waning years,
No heir despite their longings and their tears.
871-872:
He left me to my passion — me, whose heart
With every vibrant note was torn apart!
1061-1062:
And even when she dozed she found no rest
For anguished sighs forever wrung her breast.
CANTO 3
707-712:
Rotocritos caught Aretousa’s zest
To hurry to his sire with his request;
Man ever hopes his every wish to gain,
Though it may be too arduous to attain;
We think that what we like is free to take,
But, all too soon, we find out our mistake
1349-1446:
When daylight waned and darkness claimed its toll,
The well-known window was the lovers’ goal;
And midnight found the eager pair once more
Where they had stood so many times before.
There for a lengthy hour they spoke and sighed
As, each to each, they questioned and replied;
Rotocritos then said:
(EROTOCRITOS)
.....................................Love, do you know
That I have been exiled? Soon I must go
To foreign lands. Your father’s rage was great
On hearing that I sought you for my mate.
He stormed so at this insult to his pride,
That my old father almost swooned and died;
And I was given only four day’s grace
Ere to depart and see no more your face.
How can I go and leave you thus afar!
How can I live without my Guiding Star!
Ah, I must die! And soon shall dawn the day
When I am laid beneath a foreign clay!
I hear the King intends that you should wed
A prince of high-born lineage in my stead –
Can you resist for long your father’s will?
Can you withstand his claim and love me still?
My Lady sweet, I ask of you one boon
To meet resigned an end that looms so soon;
The hour you are betrothed, give a deep sigh,
And, as you don your bridal garments, cry:
“Poor Erotocritos, the pledge I swore
Is dead, and hope has fled for evermore!”
And when, as married wife, you take your place
In all your beauty and your body’s grace,
And lie at nightfall by another’s side,
Spare me a thought, who held you dear and died –
Remember that, although I loved you much,
No single finger would you let me touch.
And now and then, when you are all alone,
Think what I suffered for your sake and moan,
And take your portrait you found in my room,
The songs I sung to you amid the gloom,
Touch them with tender hands and think of me
And of my wanderings across the sea.
But when at last of my release you learn,
Throw all these things into the fire and burn,
Reduce them all to ash, let nothing last,`
And may the past be buried in the past.
The words that you hear now recall, I pray,
For soon I leave this City far away,
And you shall be for me a Star of Light
That cruel fate hid from my yearning sight.
I vow to you this moment as we part,
That none but you shall ever own my heart;
Fro the Beginning we were one, my Queen,
To part our souls no-one can come between.
Your beauty filled my mind with such a blaze,
That I portrayed you by its golden rays;
And now whichever way I turn my eyes,
I see your face on earth and in the skies –
Aye, learn form me this secret: I, your slave,
Would hasten, should you call me, from the grave!
(THE POET)
Fair Aretousa’s heart could bear no more,
It had been wounded to its very core;
She begged Rotocritos to spare her woe,
For she was reeling from misfortune’s blow.
(ARETOUSA)
Your words, Rotocritos, are steeped in bane,
Do you then wish to cause me further pain?
Grim are the visions which you now relate,
How were they born, whence did they emanate?
How can my heart in which is rooted deep
A love for you that it shall ever keep
Alive with its own blood like a great tree –
How can it change in all eternity?
Within this heart you have been locked around,
They key is broken and cannot be found;
How could therein another tree now soar,
Since foreign seed would find no open door?
Your likeness has been painted on my mind;
There is no place for any other kind,
No other portrait could an artist start,
He would be forced elsewhere to ply his art;
No-one can limn you as my visions can,
My dreams see more that eyes can ever scan.
To paint your features me heart’s-blood I used,
With my heart’s-blood the colours were infused
To blend with every tint as it was laid,
And make a picture that can never fade;
Its flesh shall live and never know decay –
For who knows more than I how to portray?
Me eyes, my heart, my mind, all dream of you
And all combine to make the image true;
How can my heart then fail you? It was cast
By you yourself into love’s furnace – blast;
And there it lost the semblance it had known
To something that was nearer to your own.
Drive every fear of losing me away,
I shall be true until my dying day;
And should my father wish to marry me
To some great monarch from across the sea,
I would a hundred times give up my life
Before another took me for his wife.
1465-1468:
(THE POET)
A ring from her own finger she then pressed
On Erotocritos’ sobs shook her breast
As she exclaimed:
(ARETOUSA)
.........................Wear this ring as a sign
That I am ever yours and you are mine;
1475-1482:
This is the token of our spirits’ troth,
The symbol that shall ever link us both;
And if to our joint prayers fate will not yield
Our souls shall meet in some Elysian Field.
I shall be yours until my dying breath,
And yours again beyond the bournes of death;
In spite of kingly fiat and decree,
No-one but you shall ever marry me.
CANTO 5
783-786:
Of angry storms there was no single sign,
The air was heady and as sweet as wine;
And a few fleecy clouds high in the sky
Seemed spun of gold-flakes softly drifting by.
1511-1518:
There never was so loved a royal pair,
One so immune to bafflement and care;
More flourishing with age they seemed to grow,
For they were strengthened by their spirit’s glow.
They were the parents of an honoured race:
Grandchildren smiled in Aretë’s embrace;
A life of fruitful gladness was their gain,
No hope was dashed, no effort was in vain.
1-42:
(THE POET)
The Cycles with their trails that rise and fall;
Time’s Wheel that knows the height and depth of All,
That bears Fate’s whims and turns not back again,
But whirls with Good and Evil in its train,
The clash of war; the spur of hate and spite;
The rapt embrace and languorous kiss by night;
All these now haunt my mind and bid me tell
The accidents and fortunes that befell
A princess and her lover in the link
Of a romance in which no guile could slink.
And all who love, who hold another dear,
Let them all read what I have written here;
Example may it be and may it prove
That none should underestimate true love;
For he who ever keeps Love’s goal in sight
May grieve at first, but all will finish right.
Then listen well and to my words give heed
To gauge of others the intent and deed:
In long past times, when Greece and Greeks were great,
And when their Faith bowed to another fate,
Into this world a constant love dawned bright
To blend two hearts in its unfailing light,
To sear two ardent hearts in passion’s blaze.
Great feats of arms were dared in those far days
In Athens, still the lodestar of the wise,
The throne of virtues and philosophies.
A mighty Lord then ruled that famous land
And guided it with his unswerving hand;
His name was Heracles, great amongst great,
Protector of all men and of the State,
A King of peerless valour and of worth
Whose word was law, whose fame amazed the earth.
From early youth this Potentate has wed
A mate of whom no slur was ever said;
She was called Artemis, this lovely Queen,
A farer face the sun had never seen,
And, as beside her royal spouse went she,
They were as one in soul and sympathy.
A loving pair, magnanimous and kind,
One single woe was theirs to fret the mind:
No child had they to bless their waning years,
No heir despite their longings and their tears.
871-872:
He left me to my passion — me, whose heart
With every vibrant note was torn apart!
1061-1062:
And even when she dozed she found no rest
For anguished sighs forever wrung her breast.
CANTO 3
707-712:
Rotocritos caught Aretousa’s zest
To hurry to his sire with his request;
Man ever hopes his every wish to gain,
Though it may be too arduous to attain;
We think that what we like is free to take,
But, all too soon, we find out our mistake
1349-1446:
When daylight waned and darkness claimed its toll,
The well-known window was the lovers’ goal;
And midnight found the eager pair once more
Where they had stood so many times before.
There for a lengthy hour they spoke and sighed
As, each to each, they questioned and replied;
Rotocritos then said:
(EROTOCRITOS)
.....................................Love, do you know
That I have been exiled? Soon I must go
To foreign lands. Your father’s rage was great
On hearing that I sought you for my mate.
He stormed so at this insult to his pride,
That my old father almost swooned and died;
And I was given only four day’s grace
Ere to depart and see no more your face.
How can I go and leave you thus afar!
How can I live without my Guiding Star!
Ah, I must die! And soon shall dawn the day
When I am laid beneath a foreign clay!
I hear the King intends that you should wed
A prince of high-born lineage in my stead –
Can you resist for long your father’s will?
Can you withstand his claim and love me still?
My Lady sweet, I ask of you one boon
To meet resigned an end that looms so soon;
The hour you are betrothed, give a deep sigh,
And, as you don your bridal garments, cry:
“Poor Erotocritos, the pledge I swore
Is dead, and hope has fled for evermore!”
And when, as married wife, you take your place
In all your beauty and your body’s grace,
And lie at nightfall by another’s side,
Spare me a thought, who held you dear and died –
Remember that, although I loved you much,
No single finger would you let me touch.
And now and then, when you are all alone,
Think what I suffered for your sake and moan,
And take your portrait you found in my room,
The songs I sung to you amid the gloom,
Touch them with tender hands and think of me
And of my wanderings across the sea.
But when at last of my release you learn,
Throw all these things into the fire and burn,
Reduce them all to ash, let nothing last,`
And may the past be buried in the past.
The words that you hear now recall, I pray,
For soon I leave this City far away,
And you shall be for me a Star of Light
That cruel fate hid from my yearning sight.
I vow to you this moment as we part,
That none but you shall ever own my heart;
Fro the Beginning we were one, my Queen,
To part our souls no-one can come between.
Your beauty filled my mind with such a blaze,
That I portrayed you by its golden rays;
And now whichever way I turn my eyes,
I see your face on earth and in the skies –
Aye, learn form me this secret: I, your slave,
Would hasten, should you call me, from the grave!
(THE POET)
Fair Aretousa’s heart could bear no more,
It had been wounded to its very core;
She begged Rotocritos to spare her woe,
For she was reeling from misfortune’s blow.
(ARETOUSA)
Your words, Rotocritos, are steeped in bane,
Do you then wish to cause me further pain?
Grim are the visions which you now relate,
How were they born, whence did they emanate?
How can my heart in which is rooted deep
A love for you that it shall ever keep
Alive with its own blood like a great tree –
How can it change in all eternity?
Within this heart you have been locked around,
They key is broken and cannot be found;
How could therein another tree now soar,
Since foreign seed would find no open door?
Your likeness has been painted on my mind;
There is no place for any other kind,
No other portrait could an artist start,
He would be forced elsewhere to ply his art;
No-one can limn you as my visions can,
My dreams see more that eyes can ever scan.
To paint your features me heart’s-blood I used,
With my heart’s-blood the colours were infused
To blend with every tint as it was laid,
And make a picture that can never fade;
Its flesh shall live and never know decay –
For who knows more than I how to portray?
Me eyes, my heart, my mind, all dream of you
And all combine to make the image true;
How can my heart then fail you? It was cast
By you yourself into love’s furnace – blast;
And there it lost the semblance it had known
To something that was nearer to your own.
Drive every fear of losing me away,
I shall be true until my dying day;
And should my father wish to marry me
To some great monarch from across the sea,
I would a hundred times give up my life
Before another took me for his wife.
1465-1468:
(THE POET)
A ring from her own finger she then pressed
On Erotocritos’ sobs shook her breast
As she exclaimed:
(ARETOUSA)
.........................Wear this ring as a sign
That I am ever yours and you are mine;
1475-1482:
This is the token of our spirits’ troth,
The symbol that shall ever link us both;
And if to our joint prayers fate will not yield
Our souls shall meet in some Elysian Field.
I shall be yours until my dying breath,
And yours again beyond the bournes of death;
In spite of kingly fiat and decree,
No-one but you shall ever marry me.
CANTO 5
783-786:
Of angry storms there was no single sign,
The air was heady and as sweet as wine;
And a few fleecy clouds high in the sky
Seemed spun of gold-flakes softly drifting by.
1511-1518:
There never was so loved a royal pair,
One so immune to bafflement and care;
More flourishing with age they seemed to grow,
For they were strengthened by their spirit’s glow.
They were the parents of an honoured race:
Grandchildren smiled in Aretë’s embrace;
A life of fruitful gladness was their gain,
No hope was dashed, no effort was in vain.
