I Aula, whose dreams were honey dripping softly, Stirs in her slumber here, For the sound of her lover pausing Brings to her heart The fragrance of star-haunted valleys. II Chara loosed her zone In the woven sunlight, And the grasses trembled for fear of her sacred fairness. But breast to breast She turned to her mother earth, And now when the swallows flutter around her pillow Only the wind Remembers the flower of her bosom. III The song in her heart is mute, But ancient music Lingers stilled in the light of the patterned woodways. IV Green boughs stirring in slumber Sigh at the lost remembrance Of Aulon, Golden-thighed, in the heart of the forest. V Here, where the dripping leaves Whisper of passing feet To the fragrant woodways, The moonlight floods the forsaken tangled boughs With loneliness For Melinna, gone from the evening. VI Over the meadow-ways to the heart of Glaucon, The honey-dreaming bees Wing their murmurous flight, For flame-tinged violets Have woven over his bed The fragrant dream that he guarded Many summers. VII Here, on the windy hill, The sunlight calls her, But under the dreaming grass Only the warm-stirred earth Answers the golden summons. VIII Here by the rocky shore Of grass-strewn Aulis, White sheep crop the herbage of salt pastures. Under this gentle mound of watered earth Their shepherd dreams softly beside them. IX Stir not the grasses here, O wandering zephyr, For Phaon travelled far over alien foam Before his footsteps turned in soft contentment Home to the green threshold He had forgotten. X Down the way to Acheron In the twilight, Flutes blow softly Bearing the memory Of Myrtis, lonely-breasted, Who wanders through the shades on her wedding day. XI High on the rhododendron-crested summits Conon followed the stars To their home in the east. Now the south wind over the storm-bowed valley Sings of the centaur who passed Through the gates of the morning. XII Under an olive tree by the banks of Ilyssus Nossis lies, who loved her husband dearly, Waiting his gentle coming with her children. |