Page:Parerga.djvu/32
This page has been validated.
22
SCENE FROM THE EUMENDIES.
'Twas Phœbus purified me. It were long
To tell the men with whom I since have dwelt
Without communicating stain or sin.
All things grow fainter and decay with Time,
All things beneath his footsteps are effaced.—
I raise my spotless hands; and I invoke,
With pure and guiltless lips, Pallas the Queen
Of this fair region, to her votary's aid:
I call on her to rise and rescue me.
To tell the men with whom I since have dwelt
Without communicating stain or sin.
All things grow fainter and decay with Time,
All things beneath his footsteps are effaced.—
I raise my spotless hands; and I invoke,
With pure and guiltless lips, Pallas the Queen
Of this fair region, to her votary's aid:
I call on her to rise and rescue me.
CHORUS.
Neither Apollo's nor Athenè's aid
Shall save thee now, so that thou perish not
Despised, rejected, ignorant of joy,
A bloodless being, to a shadow worn
By Powers Infernal.—What! shalt thou contend
In answer? thou, that hast been fatted up
As my devoted victim?—Thou alive
Shalt banquet me, although thou fall not yet
Slain at the altar's foot.———Now hear the strain,
The Hymn of horror that I bind thee with!
Neither Apollo's nor Athenè's aid
Shall save thee now, so that thou perish not
Despised, rejected, ignorant of joy,
A bloodless being, to a shadow worn
By Powers Infernal.—What! shalt thou contend
In answer? thou, that hast been fatted up
As my devoted victim?—Thou alive
Shalt banquet me, although thou fall not yet
Slain at the altar's foot.———Now hear the strain,
The Hymn of horror that I bind thee with!
Sisters, form our mystic round,
Raise the notes of curse and hate,
Tell the deeds to which we're bound,
Tell our ministry of Fate!
Raise the notes of curse and hate,
Tell the deeds to which we're bound,
Tell our ministry of Fate!