Whence the rapt spirit may ascend to Heaven! Oh, ye condemned the ills of life to bear! The happy foretaste of eternal Peace, Till Heaven in mercy bids your pain and sorrows cease. [First published in the Life of Lord Byron, by the Hon, Roden Noel, London, 1890, pp. 206, 207.] LINES WRITTEN BENEATH A PICTURE.' I. DEAR object of defeated care! Though now of Love and thee bereft, To reconcile me with despair Thine image and my tears are left. 2. 'Tis said with Sorrow Time can cope; Athens, January, 1811. [First published, Childe Harold, 1812 (4to).] 1. [These lines are copied from a leaf of the original MS. of the Second Canto of Childe Harold. They are headed, "Lines written beneath the Picture of J. U. D." In a curious work of doubtful authority, entitled, The Life, Writings, Opinions and Times of the Right Hon. G. G. Noel Byron, London, 1825 (iii. 123-132), there is a long and circumstantial narrative of a "defeated" attempt of Byron's to rescue a Georgian girl, whom he had bought in the slave-market for 800 piastres, from a life of shame and degradation. It is improbable that these verses suggested the story; and, on the other hand, the story, if true, does afford some clue to the verses.] 1. The song Acûre raides, etc., was written by Riga, who perished in the attempt to revolutionize Greece. This translation is as literal as the author could make it in verse. It is of the same measure as that of the original. [For the original, see Poetical Works, 1891, Appendix, p. 792. For Constantine Rhigas, see Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 199, note 2. Hobhouse (Travels in Albania, 1858, ii. 3) prints a version (Byron told Murray that it was "well enough," Letters, 1899, iii. 13) of Aeûte maîdes, of his own composition. He explains in a footnote that the metre is "a mixed trochaic, except the chorus." "This song," he adds, "the chorus particularly, is sung to a tune very nearly the same as the Marseillois Hymn. Strangely enough, Lord Byron, in his translation, has entirely mistaken the metre." The first stanza runs as follows: "Greeks arise! the day of glory Rival our forefathers' fame. : TRANSLATION OF THE FAMOUS GREEK WAR SONG. 21 Let your country see you rising, Oh, start again to life! At the sound of my trumpet, breaking Sons of Greeks, etc. Sparta, Sparta, why in slumbers That chief of ancient song, Who made that bold diversion And warring with the Persian To keep his country free; Expired in seas of blood. Sons of Greeks, etc. [First published, Childe Harold, 1812 (4to).] 1. Constantinople. « Επτάλοφος.” TRANSLATION OF THE ROMAIC SONG, 66 “ Μπένω μεσ' τὸ περιβόλι, Ωραιοτάτη Χαηδή,” κ.τ.λ. I ENTER thy garden of roses, Each morning where Flora reposes, Which utters its song to adore thee, Yet trembles for what it has sung; As the branch, at the bidding of Nature, But the loveliest garden grows hateful But when drunk to escape from thy malice, My heart from these horrors to save 1. The song from which this is taken is a great favourite with the young girls of Athens of all classes. Their manner of singing it is by verses in rotation, the whole number present joining in the chorus. I have heard it frequently at our χόροι" in the winter of 1810-II. The air is plaintive and pretty. As the chief who to combat advances Secure of his conquest before, Thus thou, with those eyes for thy lances, By pangs which a smile would dispel? Would the hope, which thou once bad'st me cherish, For torture repay me too well? Now sad is the garden of roses, Belovéd but false Haidée ! There Flora all withered reposes, And mourns o'er thine absence with me. 1811. [First published, Childe Harold, 1812 (4to).] ON PARTING. I. THE kiss, dear maid! thy lip has left Shall never part from mine, Till happier hours restore the gift Untainted back to thine. 2. Thy parting glance, which fondly beams, The tear that from thine eyelid streams i. Has bound my soul to thee.-[MS. M.] |