Parerga/The Burning of Troy
< Parerga
DESCRIPTION OF THE BURNING OF TROY.
FROM THE SECOND PART OF GÖTHE'S FAUST.
Bieles erlebt ich, obgleich die Locte
Jugendlich mallet mir um die Schafe.
Jugendlich mallet mir um die Schafe.
CHORUS OF TROJAN CAPTIVES.
My locks are waving youthfully,
But much have I lived through;
Too much of war and misery
Has it been mine to view.
I have outlived the deadly night
That closed on Ilion's falling might.
My locks are waving youthfully,
But much have I lived through;
Too much of war and misery
Has it been mine to view.
I have outlived the deadly night
That closed on Ilion's falling might.
Through the dust-o'erclouded throng,
Where striving warriors press'd along,
I heard th' unearthly call;
Voices of vengeful Deities
Discordant clang'd o'er plain and seas,
On to the city-wall.
Where striving warriors press'd along,
I heard th' unearthly call;
Voices of vengeful Deities
Discordant clang'd o'er plain and seas,
On to the city-wall.
Yet stood they, Ilion's holy walls.
But swift from fanes and towers and halls
The broad flush of the swallowing flame
Up to the midnight heavens came.
The wild fire-billows crackling, curling,
With their own storms whirl'd and whirling.
But swift from fanes and towers and halls
The broad flush of the swallowing flame
Up to the midnight heavens came.
The wild fire-billows crackling, curling,
With their own storms whirl'd and whirling.
Through the vapour, through the flare
Of the lambent forky flashes
Awful forms beheld I there
Striding o'er the steaming ashes.
Each hostile God 'twas mine to know
With threatening arm and angry brow
Reveal'd amid destruction's glow.[1]
Of the lambent forky flashes
Awful forms beheld I there
Striding o'er the steaming ashes.
Each hostile God 'twas mine to know
With threatening arm and angry brow
Reveal'd amid destruction's glow.[1]
- ↑ Compare Virgil, Æn. II. 608:—Hìc, ubi disjectas moles avulsaque saxis
Saxa vides, mixtoque undantem pulvere fumum,
Neptunus muros, magnoque emota tridenti
Fundamenta quatit, totamque ab sedibus urbem
Eruit. Hìc Juno Scæas'sævissima portas
Prima tenet, sociumque furens a navibus agmen,
Ferro accincta, vocat.
Jam summas arces Tritonia, respice, Pallas
Insedit, nimbo effulgens, et Gorgone'sævâ.
Ipse Pater Danais animos viresque secundas
Sufficit: ipse deos in Dardana suscitat arma.
Eripe, nate, fugam, finemque impone labori.
Nusquam abero, et tutum patrio te limine sistam.
Dixerat: et spissis noctis se condidit umbris.
Adparent diræ facies, inimicaque Trojæ
Numina magna Deûm.