The Odyssey (Wisehouse Classics Edition). Homer

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ would my mother curse my hated head!

      And while In wrath to vengeful fiends she cries,

      How from their hell would vengeful fiends arise!

      Abhorr’d by all, accursed my name would grow,

      The earth’s disgrace, and human-kind my foe.

      If this displease, why urge ye here your stay?

      Haste from the court, ye spoilers, haste away:

      Waste in wild riot what your land allows,

      There ply the early feast, and late carouse.

      But if to honour lost, ’tis still decreed

      For you my howl shall flow, my flocks shall bleed;

      Judge, and assert my right, impartial Jove!

      By him, and all the immortal host above

      (A sacred oath), if heaven the power supply,

      Vengeance I vow, and for your wrongs ye die.”

      With that, two eagles from a mountain’s height

      By Jove’s command direct their rapid flight;

      Swift they descend, with wing to wing conjoin’d,

      Stretch their broad plumes, and float upon the wind.

      Above the assembled peers they wheel on high,

      And clang their wings, and hovering beat the sky;

      With ardent eyes the rival train they threat,

      And shrieking loud denounce approaching fate.

      They cuff, they tear; their cheeks and neck they rend,

      And from their plumes huge drops of blood descend;

      Then sailing o’er the domes and towers, they fly,

      Full toward the east, and mount into the sky.

      The wondering rivals gaze, with cares oppress’d,

      And chilling horrors freeze in every breast,

      Till big with knowledge of approaching woes,

      The prince of augurs, Halitherses, rose:

      Prescient he view’d the aerial tracks, and drew

      A sure presage from every wing that flew.

      “Ye sons (he cried) of Ithaca, give ear;

      Hear all! but chiefly you, O rivals! hear.

      Destruction sure o’er all your heads impends

      Ulysses comes, and death his steps attends.

      Nor to the great alone is death decreed;

      We and our guilty Ithaca must bleed.

      Why cease we then the wrath of heaven to stay?

      Be humbled all, and lead, ye great! the way.

      For lo? my words no fancied woes relate;

      I speak from science and the voice of fate.

      “When great Ulysses sought the Phrygian shores

      To shake with war proud Ilion’s lofty towers,

      Deeds then undone me faithful tongue foretold:

      Heaven seal’d my words, and you those deeds behold.

      I see (I cried) his woes, a countless train;

      I see his friends o’erwhelm’d beneath the main;

      How twice ten years from shore to shore he roams:

      Now twice ten years are past, and now he comes!”

      To whom Eurymachus —“Fly, dotard fly,

      With thy wise dreams, and fables of the sky.

      Go prophesy at home, thy sons advise:

      Here thou art sage in vain — I better read the skies

      Unnumber’d birds glide through the aerial way;

      Vagrants of air, and unforeboding stray.

      Cold in the tomb, or in the deeps below,

      Ulysses lies; oh wert thou laid as low!

      Then would that busy head no broils suggest,

      For fire to rage Telemachus’ breast,

      From him some bribe thy venal tongue requires,

      And interest, not the god, thy voice inspires.

      His guideless youth, if thy experienced age

      Mislead fallacious into idle rage,

      Vengeance deserved thy malice shall repress.

      And but augment the wrongs thou would’st redress,

      Telemachus may bid the queen repair

      To great Icarius, whose paternal care

      Will guide her passion, and reward her choice

      With wealthy dower, and bridal gifts of price.

      Till she retires, determined we remain,

      And both the prince and augur threat in vain:

      His pride of words, and thy wild dream of fate,

      Move not the brave, or only move their hate,

      Threat on, O prince! elude the bridal day.

      Threat on, till all thy stores in waste decay.

      True, Greece affords a train of lovely dames,

      In wealth and beauty worthy of our flames:

      But never from this nobler suit we cease;

      For wealth and beauty less than virtue please.”

      To whom the youth: “Since then in vain I tell

      My numerous woes, in silence let them dwell.

      But Heaven, and all the Greeks, have heard my wrongs;

      To Heaven, and all the Greeks, redress belongs;

      Yet СКАЧАТЬ