The Complete Poetry of John Milton (42 page)
Read The Complete Poetry of John Milton Online
Authors: John Milton
Tags: #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Poetry, #European
5
Tu quoque si nostræ tantùm valet aura Camœnæ,
Victrices hederas inter, laurosque sedebis.
Te pridem magno felix concordia Tasso
Junxit, et æternis inscripsit nomina chartis.
Mox tibi dulciloquum non inscia Musa Marinum
3
10
Tradidit, ille tuum dici se gaudet alumnum,
Dum canit Assyrios divûm prolixus amores;
Mollis et Ausonias stupefecit carmine nymphas.
Ille itidem moriens tibi soli debita vates
Ossa tibi soli, supremaque vota reliquit.
15
Nec manes pietas tua chara fefellit amici,
Vidimus arridentem operoso ex ære poetam.
Nec satis hoc visum est in utrumque, et nec pia cessant
Officia in tumulo, cupis integros rapere Orco,
Quà potes, atque avidas Parcarum eludere leges:
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Amborum genus, et variâ sub sorte peractam
Describis vitam, moresque, et dona Minervæ;
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Æmulus illius Mycalen qui natus ad altam
Rettulit Æolii vitam facundus Homeri.
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Ergo ego te Cliûs
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et magni nomine Phœbi,
25
Manse pater, jubeo longum slavere per ævum
Missus Hyperboreo
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juvenis peregrinus ab axe.
Nec tu longinquam bonus aspernabere Musam,
Quæ nuper gelidâ vix enutrita sub Arcto
Imprudens Italas ausa est volitare per urbes.
30
Nos etiam in nostro modulantes flumine cygnos
Credimus obscuras noctis sensisse per umbras,
Quà Thamesis latè puris argenteus urnis
Oceani glaucos perfundit gurgite crines.
Quin et in has quondam pervenit Tityrus
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oras.
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Sed neque nos genus incultum, nec inutile Phœbo,
Quà plaga septeno mundi sulcata Trione
Brumalem patitur longâ sub nocte Boöten.
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Nos etiam colimus Phœbum, nos munera Phœbo
Flaventes spicas, et lutea mala canistris,
40
Halantemque crocum (perhibet nisi vana vetustas)
Misimus, et lectas Druidum de gente choreas.
(Gens Druides antiqua sacris operata deorum
Heroum laudes imitandaque gesta canebant)
Hinc quoties festo cingunt altaria cantu
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Delo in herbosâ Graiæ de more puellæ
Carminibus lætis memorant Corineïda Loxo,
Fatidicamque Upin, cum flavicomâ Hecaërge
Nuda Caledonio variatas pectora fuco.
10
Fortunate senex,
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ergo quacunque per orbem
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Torquati decus, et nomen celebrabitur ingens,
Claraque perpetui succrescet fama Marini,
Tu quoque in ora frequens venies plausumque virorum,
Et parili carpes iter immortale volatu.
Dicetur turn sponte tuos habitasse penates
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Cynthius, et famulas venisse ad limina Musas:
At non sponte domum tamen idem, et regis adivit
Rura Pheretiadæ cælo fugitivus Apollo;
12
Ille licet magnum Alciden susceperat hospes;
Tantùm ubi clamosos placuit vitare bubulcos,
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Nobile mansueti cessit Chironis
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in antrum,
Irriguos inter saltus frondosaque tecta
Peneium prope rivum: ibi sæpe sub ilice nigrâ
Ad citharæ strepitum blandâ prece victus amici
Exilii duros lenibat voce labores.
65
Turn neque ripa suo, barathro nec fixa sub imo,
Saxa stetere loco, nutat Trachinia rupes,
Nec sentit solitas, immania pondera, silvas,
Emotæque suis properant de collibus omi,
Mulcenturque novo maculosi carmine lynces.
70
Diis dilecte senex, te Jupiter æquus oportet
Nascentem, et miti lustrarit lumine Phœbus,
Atlantisque nepos;
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neque enim nisi charus ab ortu
Diis superis poterit magno favisse poetæ.
Hinc longæva tibi lento sub flore senectus
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Vernat, et Æsonios
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lucratur vivida fusos,
Nondum deciduos servans tibi frontis honores,
Ingeniumque vigens, et adultum mentis acumen.
O mihi si mea sors talem concedat amicum
Phœbæos decorâsse viros qui tam bene norit,
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Si quando indigenas revocabo in carmina reges,
Arturumque etiam sub terris bella moventem;
Aut dicam invictæ sociali fœdere mensæ,
Magnanimos Heroas, et (O modo spiritus adsit)
Frangam Saxonicas Britonum sub Marte phalanges.
85
Tandem ubi non tacitæ permensus tempora vitæ,
Annorumque satur cineri sua jura relinquam,
Ille mihi lecto madidis astaret ocellis,
Astanti sat erit si dicam, sim tibi curæ;
Ille meos artus liventi morte solutos
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Curaret parvâ componi molliter urnâ.
Forsitan et nostros ducat de marmore vultus,
Nectens aut Paphiâ myrti aut Parnasside lauri
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Fronde comas, at ego securâ pace quiescam.
Turn quoque, si qua fides, si præmia certa bonorum,
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Ipse ego cælicolûm semotus in æthera divûm,
Quò labor et mens pura vehunt, atque ignea virtus,
Secreti hæc aliquâ mundi de parte videbo
(Quantum fata sinunt) et totâ mente serenùm
Ridens purpureo suffundar lumine vultus
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Et simul æthereo plaudam mihi lætus Olympo.
John Baptista Manso, Marquis of Villa, man of genius, well-praised already for his study of literature and also for his martial courage, is renowned in the foremost ranks among Italians. A dialogue on friendship written to him by Torquato Tasso is extant; for he was most friendly to Tasso; by whom likewise he is honored among the Campanian princes, in that poem which is titled
Jerusalem Conquered, Book 20:
Among magnanimous and courteous cavaliers
Manso is resplendent.
He honored the author sojourning in Naples with the greatest kindness, and granted him many courteous attentions. To whom accordingly before he left that city, the visitor, so that he would not show himself ungrateful, sent this poem.
These verses also, Manso, the Pierides
1
are meditating / in your praise; for you, Manso, well-known among the choir of Apollo, / since indeed after the death of Gallus and of Etruscan Maecenas,
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/ he deems no other equally worthy in honor. / You also, if the breath of my Muse has power to such a degree, [5] / will sit among the victorious ivy and laurels. / Happy friendship joined you to the great Tasso / long ago, and has inscribed your names in everlasting scrolls. / Soon afterwards the Muse, not without wisdom, committed to you / the sweet-tongued Marini;
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he was pleased to be called your foster-son, [10] / when, prolix, he sang the Assyrian loves of the gods; / and, gentle, he benumbed the Ausonian nymphs with his song. / So that poet, dying, bequeathed his indebted remains to you alone / and his last wishes to you alone. / And your dear affection has not disappointed your friend’s shade; [15] / we have seen the poet smiling from his artfully wrought bronze. / But this was not perceived sufficiently in each one, and your tender services / did not end in the tomb; you wish to seize them unharmed from Orcus, / as well as you can, and to elude the greedy laws of the Fates: / you write
the ancestry of both and each one’s life, achieved [20] / under changeable fortune, their traits, and their gifts from Athena;
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/ eloquent rival of that man born in high Mycale / who recounted the life of Aeolian Homer.
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/ Therefore, in the name of Clio
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and great Apollo, / father Manso, I bid you be well through a long life, [25] / a young pilgrim sent from an Hyperborean
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clime. / You, good man will not scorn a remote Muse, / who, hardly nourished under the frozen Bear, ignorant, / has recently ventured to fly to and fro through the Italian cities. / Furthermore I believe that in the dark shadows of night I have heard [30] / the swans singing on our river / where the silvery Thames with pure urns / widely bathes her gleaming tresses in the abyss of the ocean. / And of a truth Tityrus
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long ago attained these shores. / But we, neither an uncultivated race nor one unserviceable to Apollo, [35] / in the region of the world which is furrowed by the sevenfold Triones, / endure in the long night wintry Boötes.
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/ We therefore worship Apollo; we have sent presents to him, / golden ears of grain, and yellow apples in baskets, / and fragrant crocus (unless antiquity bestows vain things), [40] / and choice dances from the race of the Druids. / (The ancient Druid nation, experienced in the sacred rites of the gods, / used to sing the praises of heroes and their emulable deeds.) / So often as the Greek maidens encircle with festive music / the altars in grassy Delos, according to their custom, [45] / they celebrate with happy songs Corinedian Loxo / and prophetic Upis, with flaxen-haired Hecaerge, / painted diversely to their naked breasts with Caledonian dye.
10
/ Fortunate old man!
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therefore, wherever through the world / the glory and the great name of Torquato shall be celebrated [50] / and the illustrious fame of immortal Marini shall grow anew, / you shall also spring repeatedly into the mouths and applause of men, / and with equal swiftness you shall tread upon the road of immortality. / It shall be said then that Apollo dwelled in your house of his own accord, / and that the Muses came as attendants to your doors: [55] / and yet not freely did that same Apollo, fugitive from
heaven, / approach the rural home of King Admetus,
12
/ although he had been host to great Hercules; / when he wished so much to escape the noisy ploughmen, / he retired to the renowned cave of the gentle Chiron
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[60] / among the moist woodlands and leafy abodes / near the river Peneus: there often under the dark ilex, / to the sound of the cithara, won by his friend’s soft plea, / he would lighten the hard labors of exile by his voice. / Then neither bank nor rocks fixed under the lowest abyss [65] / would stay in place; the Trachinian cliff tottered, / and no longer felt the vast weight in its accustomed forests, / and displaced mountain-ashes hastened from their hills, / and the spotted lynxes were soothed by the strange song. / Old man, beloved of the gods, favorable Jove must have been present [70] / at your birth, and Phoebus must have purified you with his mellow light, / and the grandson of Atlas;
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for no one, unless favored from birth / by the heavenly gods, could have befriended a great poet. / Therefore to you old age blooms with lasting flower, / and, vigorous, gains the spindles of Aeson,
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[75] / preserving the honors of brow not yet falling to you, / and esteeming your talents and mature power of mind. / O if my lot might grant me such a friend, / one who so well knows how to honor the devotees of Apollo, / if ever I shall recall our native kings in songs, [80] / and likewise Arthur waging wars under the earth; / or proclaim the magnanimous heroes of the invincible table / with their convenant of companionship, and (O only let the spirit be present) / shatter the Saxon phalanxes under British Mars. / And when at last, having traversed the hours of a not silent life, [85] / and full of years, I bequeath to the ashes their due, /he should stand by my couch with tearful eyes, / it shall be enough if I might say to him standing there, Would I were in your care; / he would be solicitous for my limbs, relaxed by livid death, / gently to be gathered in a little urn. [90] / And perhaps he might fashion my features from marble, / fastening my locks with a garland of either Paphian myrtle / or Parnassian laurel,
16
so I should rest in untroubled peace. / Then also, if to that degree faithful, if certain of the rewards of the good, / I myself, far removed in the upper air of the heaven-dwelling gods, [95] / where labor and a pure mind and fervid virtue lead, / shall see these things from some part of the secret world / (as many as the fates allow), and with my whole heart, / smiling, shall be suffused with brilliant light on my serene face / and at the same time I shall congratulate myself, full of joy, on ethereal Olympus. [100]