The Complete Poetical Works, vol 3 | Page 2

TO HARRIET.
TO IANTHE.
SONG FROM THE WANDERING JEW.
FRAGMENT FROM THE WANDERING JEW.
TO THE QUEEN OF MY HEART.
EDITOR'S NOTES.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST OF EDITIONS.
INDEX OF FIRST LINES.
***
TRANSLATIONS.
[Of the Translations that follow a few were published by Shelley

himself, others by Mrs. Shelley in the "Posthumous Poems", 1824, or
the "Poetical Works", 1839, and the remainder by Medwin (1834,
1847), Garnett (1862), Rossetti (1870), Forman (1876) and Locock
(1903) from the manuscript originals. Shelley's "Translations" fall
between the years 1818 and 1822.]
HYMN TO MERCURY.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK OF HOMER.
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. This alone of
the "Translations" is included in the Harvard manuscript book.
'Fragments of the drafts of this and the other Hymns of Homer exist
among the Boscombe manuscripts' (Forman).]
1.
Sing, Muse, the son of Maia and of Jove,
The Herald-child, king
of Arcadia
And all its pastoral hills, whom in sweet love
Having
been interwoven, modest May
Bore Heaven's dread Supreme. An
antique grove _5 Shadowed the cavern where the lovers lay
In the
deep night, unseen by Gods or Men,
And white-armed Juno
slumbered sweetly then.
2.
Now, when the joy of Jove had its fulfilling,
And Heaven's tenth
moon chronicled her relief, _10 She gave to light a babe all babes
excelling,
A schemer subtle beyond all belief;
A shepherd of thin
dreams, a cow-stealing,
A night-watching, and door-waylaying thief,

Who 'mongst the Gods was soon about to thieve, _15 And other
glorious actions to achieve.
3.
The babe was born at the first peep of day;
He began playing on
the lyre at noon,
And the same evening did he steal away
Apollo's
herds;--the fourth day of the moon _20 On which him bore the
venerable May,
From her immortal limbs he leaped full soon,
Nor
long could in the sacred cradle keep,
But out to seek Apollo's herds
would creep.

4.
Out of the lofty cavern wandering _25 He found a tortoise, and
cried out--'A treasure!'
(For Mercury first made the tortoise sing)

The beast before the portal at his leisure
The flowery herbage was
depasturing,
Moving his feet in a deliberate measure _30 Over the
turf. Jove's profitable son
Eying him laughed, and laughing thus
begun:--
5.
'A useful godsend are you to me now,
King of the dance,
companion of the feast,
Lovely in all your nature! Welcome, you _35
Excellent plaything! Where, sweet mountain-beast,
Got you that
speckled shell? Thus much I know,
You must come home with me
and be my guest;
You will give joy to me, and I will do
All that is
in my power to honour you. _40
6.
'Better to be at home than out of door,
So come with me; and
though it has been said
That you alive defend from magic power,
I
know you will sing sweetly when you're dead.'
Thus having spoken,
the quaint infant bore, _45 Lifting it from the grass on which it fed

And grasping it in his delighted hold,
His treasured prize into the
cavern old.
7.
Then scooping with a chisel of gray steel,
He bored the life and
soul out of the beast.-- _50 Not swifter a swift thought of woe or weal

Darts through the tumult of a human breast
Which thronging cares
annoy--not swifter wheel
The flashes of its torture and unrest
Out of
the dizzy eyes--than Maia's son _55 All that he did devise hath featly
done.
8.
And through the tortoise's hard stony skin
At proper distances small holes he made,
And fastened the cut stems of reeds within,
And with a piece of leather overlaid _60 The open space and fixed the

cubits in,
Fitting the bridge to both, and stretched o'er all
Symphonious cords of sheep-gut rhythmical.
9.
When he had wrought the lovely instrument,
He tried the chords,
and made division meet, _65 Preluding with the plectrum, and there
went
Up from beneath his hand a tumult sweet
Of mighty sounds,
and from his lips he sent
A strain of unpremeditated wit
Joyous and
wild and wanton--such you may _70 Hear among revellers on a
holiday.
10.
He sung how Jove and May of the bright sandal
Dallied in love
not quite legitimate;
And his own birth, still scoffing at the scandal,

And naming his own name, did celebrate; _75 His mother's cave and
servant maids he planned all
In plastic verse, her household stuff and
state,
Perennial pot, trippet, and brazen pan,--
But singing, he
conceived another plan.
11.
Seized with a sudden fancy for fresh meat, _80 He in his sacred crib
deposited
The hollow lyre, and from the cavern sweet
Rushed with great leaps up to the mountain's head,
Revolving in his mind some subtle feat
Of thievish craft, such as a swindler might _85 Devise in the lone
season of dun night.
12.
Lo! the great Sun under the ocean's bed has
Driven steeds and
chariot--the child meanwhile strode
O'er the Pierian mountains
clothed in shadows,
Where the immortal oxen of the God _90 Are
pastured in the flowering unmown meadows,
And safely stalled in a
remote abode.--
The archer Argicide, elate and proud,
Drove fifty
from the herd, lowing