54. DOUBLE COOKING-VESSEL
Who could believe such causes wrought this sight,
Who reconcile such contradictory lots
With common laws of Nature?
Within my hollow belly fire and flood; 5 Yet billowing water may not quench the flames, Nor may dire heat dry up the welling streams, For wave and flame have made a pact of peace. Hammer and anvil long since shaped me thus.
I am a house that shelters God's own gift,
And men adore me, but none opens wide
My portals, save by bearing off the roof
Of my four halls; though fiery gems adorn,
5 And ornaments of tawny gold make fair
My body's outward parts, more rich and fine
Are all the parts within, where brightly flames
The beauteous form of Christ; thus holy things
Reveal their glory. Here no timbers are;
10 No columns rise to bear this temple's dome.
Upon steep banks along the stream I dwell-
Not slothful, but by weapons of my mouth
Made warlike-and endure a life of toil,
With hook-shaped axes felling heavy trees.
5 Down to the oozy bottom, where the fish
Swim to and fro, I often plunge, and drench
My head in many an eddy. I can cure
Ills of the bowels, heal corrupted limbs,
Dispel the pestilence and deadly plague.
10 For food I gnaw the bitter bark of trees.
'Armiger infausti Iovis et raptor Ganimidis' Quamquam pellaces cantarent carmine vates, Non fueram præpes, quo fertur Dardana proles, Sed magis in summis cicnos agitabo fugaces 5 Arsantesque grues proturbo sub ætheris axe. Corpora dum senio corrumpit fessa vetustas, Fontibus in liquidis mergentis membra madescunt; Post hæc restauror præclaro lumine Phœbi.
Tempore de primo noctis mihi nomen adhæsit, Occiduas mundi complector cardine partes; Oceano Titan dum corpus tinxerit almum Et polus in glaucis relabens volvitur undis, 5 Tum sequor, in vitreis recondens lumina campis Et fortunatus, subito ni tollar ab æthra, Ut furvas lumen noctis depelleret umbras.
Me dudum genuit candens onocrotalus albam,、
Gutture qui patulo sorbet de gurgite limphas.
Pergo per albentes directo tramite campos
Candentique viæ vestigia cærula linquo,
5 Lucida nigratis fuscans anfractibus arva.
Nec satis est unum per campos pandere callem,
Semita quin potius milleno tramite tendit,
Quæ non errantes ad cæli culmina vexit.
"The squire of unblessed Jupiter, and thief
Of Ganymede,' seductive poets sang.
But I was not that bird who snatched away
The Trojan youth; nay rather, high in air,
5 I scatter fleeing swans, and honking geese
I drive before me through the dome of heaven.
When weary age has bent my senile limbs,
In springs of limpid water then I plunge,
And, dripping, rise restored in Phoebus' light.
58. EVENING STAR (VESPER)
The early hours of night gave me my name;
I haunt the regions where the sloping sky
Bends to the earth; when Titan in the sea
Dips his life-giving body, and the heavens,
5 Changing their course, roll back through crystal waves, Then do I follow, and conceal my light
Beneath the glassy plain, and happy I
(If I but be not cast down from the heavens)
To quell night's dusky shadows with my gleam.
The shining pelican, whose yawning throat
Gulps down the waters of the sea, long since
Produced me, white as he. Through snowy fields
I keep a straight road, leaving deep-blue tracks
5 Upon the gleaming way, and darkening
The fair champaign with black and tortuous paths;
Yet one way through the plain suffices not,
For with a thousand bypaths runs the road,
And them who stray not from it, leads to heaven.
Collibus in celsis sævi discrimina Martis, Quamvis venator frustra latrante moloso Garriat arcister contorquens spicula ferri, Nil vereor, magnis sed fretus viribus altos 5 Belliger impugnans elefantes vulnere sterno. Heu! fortuna ferox, quæ me sic arte fefellit, Dum trucido grandes et virgine vincor inermi! Nam gremium pandens mox pulchra puerpera prendit Et voti compos celsam deducit ad urbem. Io Indidit ex cornu nomen mihi lingua Pelasga; Sic itidem propria dixerunt voce Latini.
De terræ gremiis formabar primitus arte;
Materia trucibus processit cetera tauris
Aut potius putidis constat fabricata capellis.
Per me multorum clauduntur lumina leto,
5 Qui domini nudus nitor defendere vitam.
Nam domus est constructa mihi de tergore secto
Necnon et tabulis, quas findunt stipite, rasis.
De madido nascor rorantibus æthere guttis
Turgida concrescens liquido de flumine lapsu,
Sed me nulla valet manus udo gurgite nantem
Tangere, ni statim rumpantur viscera tactu
5 Et fragilis tenues flatus discedat in auras.
Ante catervatim per limphas duco cohortes,
Dum plures ortu comites potiuntur eodem.
Though on the lofty hills the hunter urge
His vainly barking dogs with empty din,
And speed his iron shafts, I fear no risk
Of savage Mars, but, trusting in my might,
5 I boldly set upon tall elephants
And fell them, wounded sore. Yet cruel Fate,
Alas, has tricked me slyly: I who slay
The mighty, by an unarmed girl am caught;
For a fair maiden, laying bare her breast,
10 May take me, doing as she will with me,
And to her high-built city lead me back.
My horn has given me my name in Greek;
Thus, too, the Latins call me in their tongue.
First, from earth's bosom was I brought, and shaped Artfully, while the rest of me was made
From a ferocious bull or fetid goat.
Through me the eyes of many close in death
5 Through me, who, bare of armor, yet essay
To guard my master's life; my house is built
Of shapen hide and smooth wood split from trees.
In dewy drops I come from rainy skies,
And swell in form by falling with the shower.
No hand may touch me as I float along
Among the eddies, for a single touch
5 Instantly bursts me, and my fragile breath
Into thin air departs. But now I swim,
And lead whole cohorts in my company,
Since many comrades share my origin.
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