Gebir | Page 9

and only lives for thee.?Happy, thrice happy, you! 'tis me alone?Whom heaven and earth and ocean with one hate?Conspire on, and throughout each path pursue.?Whether in waves beneath or skies above?Thou hast thy habitation, 'tis from heaven,?From heaven alone, such power, such charms, descend.?Then oh! discover whence that ruin comes?Each night upon our city, whence are heard?Those yells of rapture round our fallen walls:?In our affliction can the gods delight,?Or meet oblation for the nymphs are tears?"
He spake, and indignation sank in woe.?Which she perceiving, pride refreshed her heart,?Hope wreathed her mouth with smiles, and she exclaimed:?"Neither the gods afflict you, nor the nymphs.?Return me him who won my heart, return?Him whom my bosom pants for, as the steeds?In the sun's chariot for the western wave,?The gods will prosper thee, and Tamar prove?How nymphs the torments that they cause assuage.?Promise me this! indeed I think thou hast,?But 'tis so pleasing, promise it once more."
"Once more I promise," cried the gladdened king,?"By my right hand and by myself I swear,?And ocean's gods and heaven's gods I adjure,?Thou shalt be Tamar's, Tamar shalt be thine."
Then she, regarding him long fixed, replied:?"I have thy promise, take thou my advice.?Gebir, this land of Egypt is a land?Of incantation, demons rule these waves;?These are against thee, these thy works destroy.?Where thou hast built thy palace, and hast left?The seven pillars to remain in front,?Sacrifice there, and all these rites observe.?Go, but go early, ere the gladsome Hours,?Strew saffron in the path of rising Morn,?Ere the bee buzzing o'er flowers fresh disclosed?Examine where he may the best alight?Nor scatter off the bloom, ere cold-lipped herds?Crop the pale herbage round each other's bed,?Lead seven bulls, well pastured and well formed,?Their neck unblemished and their horns unringed,?And at each pillar sacrifice thou one.?Around each base rub thrice the black'ning blood,?And burn the curling shavings of the hoof;?And of the forehead locks thou also burn:?The yellow galls, with equal care preserved,?Pour at the seventh statue from the north."
He listened, and on her his eyes intent?Perceived her not, and she had disappeared -?So deep he pondered her important words.
And now had morn arisen and he performed?Almost the whole enjoined him: he had reached?The seventh statue, poured the yellow galls,?The forelock from his left he had released?And burnt the curling shavings of the hoof?Moistened with myrrh; when suddenly a flame?Spired from the fragrant smoke, nor sooner spired?Down sank the brazen fabric at his feet.?He started back, gazed, nor could aught but gaze,?And cold dread stiffened up his hair flower-twined;?Then with a long and tacit step, one arm?Behind, and every finger wide outspread,?He looked and tottered on a black abyss.?He thought he sometimes heard a distant voice?Breathe through the cavern's mouth, and further on?Faint murmurs now, now hollow groans reply.?Therefore suspended he his crook above,?Dropped it, and heard it rolling step by step:?He entered, and a mingled sound arose?Like one (when shaken from some temple's roof?By zealous hand, they and their fretted nest)?Of birds that wintering watch in Memnon's tomb,?And tell the halcyons when spring first returns.
THIRD BOOK.
On, for the spirit of that matchless man?Whom Nature led throughout her whole domain,?While he embodied breathed etherial air!
Though panting in the play-hour of my youth?I drank of Avon too, a dangerous draught,?That roused within the feverish thirst of song,?Yet never may I trespass o'er the stream?Of jealous Acheron, nor alive descend?The silent and unsearchable abodes?Of Erebus and Night, nor unchastised?Lead up long-absent heroes into day.?When on the pausing theatre of earth?Eve's shadowy curtain falls, can any man?Bring back the far-off intercepted hills,?Grasp the round rock-built turret, or arrest?The glittering spires that pierce the brow of Heaven??Rather can any with outstripping voice?The parting sun's gigantic strides recall?
Twice sounded GEBIR! twice th' Iberian king?Thought it the strong vibration of the brain?That struck upon his ear; but now descried?A form, a man, come nearer: as he came?His unshorn hair grown soft in these abodes?Waved back, and scattered thin and hoary light.?Living, men called him Aroar, but no more?In celebration or recording verse?His name is heard, no more by Arnon's side?The well-walled city which he reared remains.?Gebir was now undaunted--for the brave?When they no longer doubt no longer fear--?And would have spoken, but the shade began,
"Brave son of Hesperus! no mortal hand?Has led thee hither, nor without the gods?Penetrate thy firm feet the vast profound.?Thou knowest not that here thy fathers lie,?The race of Sidad; theirs was loud acclaim?When living, but their pleasure was in war;?Triumphs and hatred followed: I myself?Bore, men imagined, no inglorious part:?The gods thought otherwise, by whose decree?Deprived of life, and more, of death deprived,?I still hear shrieking through the moonless night?Their discontented and deserted shades.?Observe these horrid walls, this rueful waste!?Here some refresh the vigour of the mind?With contemplation and cold penitence:?Nor wonder while thou hearest that the soul?Thus purified hereafter may ascend?Surmounting