1. Text (translated by A.D. Melville)
BOOK X
ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE
Thence(from Crete where where Iphis and lanthe took place) Hymen(Roman god of marriage) came, in saffron mantle clad,
At Orpheus' summons through the boundless sky
To Thessaly, but vain the summons proved. (preshadowing the failure of his song in the future)
True he was present, but no hallowed words
He brought nor happy smiles nor lucky sign;
Even the torch he held sputtered throughout
With smarting smoke, and caught no living flame
For all his brandishing. The ill-starred rite
Led to a grimmer end. The new-wed bride,
Roaming with her gay Naiads(a type of female spirit, or nymph of fountains or springs) through the grass.
Fell dying when a serpent struck her heel.
And when at last the bard of Rhodope(Orpheus)
Had mourned his fill in the wide world above,
He dared descend through Taenarus(Cape matapan in Greece)’ dark gate
To Hades to make trial of the shades;
And through the thronging wraiths(spirits of dead people) and grave-spent ghosts
He came to pale Persephone and him,
Lord of the shades, who rules the unlovely realm,
And as he struck his lyre’s sad chords he said:
‘Ye deities who rule the world below,
Whither we mortal creatures all return,
If simple truth, direct and genuine,
May by your leave be told, I have come down
Not with intent to see the glooms of Hell,
Nor to enchain the triple snake-haired necks
Of Cerberus, but for my dear wife’s sake,
In whom a trodden viper poured his venom
And stole her budding years. My heart has sought
Strength to endure; the attempt I’ll not deny;
But love has won, a god whose fame is fair
In the world above; but here I doubt, though here
Too, I surmise; and if that ancient tale
Of ravishment(Hades' abduction of Persephone) is true, you too were joined
In love. Now by these regions filled with fear,
By this huge chaos, these vast silent realms,
Reweave, I implore, the fate unwound too fast
Of my Eurydice. To you are owed
Ourselves and all creation; a brief while
We linger; then we hasten, late or soon,
To one abode; here one road leads us all;
Here in the end is home; over humankind
Your kingdom keeps the longest sovereignty.
She too, when ripening years reach their due term,
Shall own(acknowledge) your rule. The favour that I ask
Is but to enjoy her love; and, if the Fates
Will not reprieve her, my resolve is clear
Not to return: may two deaths give you cheer.’
So to the music of his strings he sang,
And all the bloodless spirits wept to hear;
And Tantalus forgot the fleeing water,
Laid down their urns; the vultures left their feast,
And Sisyphus sat rapt upon his stone.
Then first by that sad singing overwhelmed,
The Furies' cheeks, it’s said, were wet with tears;
And Hades’ queen and he whose sceptre rules
The Underworld could not deny the prayer,
And called Eurydice. She was among
The recent ghosts and, limping from her wound,
Came slowly forth; and Orpheus took his bride
And with her this compact(contract, covenant) that, till he reach
The world above and leave Avernus' vale,
He look not back or else the gift would fail.
The track climbed upwards, steep and indistinct,
Through the hushed silence and the murky gloom;
And now they neared the edge of the bright world,
And, fearing lest she faint, longing to look,
He turned his eyes-and straight she slipped away.
He stretched his arms to hold her-to be held-
And clasped, poor soul, naught but the yielding air.
And she, dying again, made no complaint
(For what complaint had she save she was loved?)(mysogyny?)
And breathed a faint farewell, and turned again
Back to the land of spirits whence she came.
The double death of his Eurydice
Stole Orpheus’ wits away; (like him who saw
In dread the three-necked hound of Hell with chains
Fast round his middle neck, and never lost
His terror till he lost his nature too
And turned to stone; or Olenos, who took
Upon himself the charge and claimed the guilt
When his ill-starred Lethaea trusted to
Her beauty, hearts once linked so close, and now
Two rocks on runnelled Ida’s mountainside).
He longed, he begged, in vain to be allowed
To cross the stream of Styx a second time.
The ferryman(Charon) repulsed him. Even so
For seven days he sat upon the bank,
Unkempt and fasting, anguish, grief and tears
His nourishment, and cursed Hell’s cruelty.
Then he withdrew to soaring Rhodope
And Haemus(a mountain in Thrace) battered by the northern gales.
Three times the sun had reached the watery Fish(pisces, 물고기자리)
That close the year, while Orpheus held himself
Aloof from love of women, hurt perhaps
By ill-success or bound by plighted troth(faithfulness, one's promise to marry).
Yet many a woman burned with passion for
The bard, and many grieved at their repulse.
It was his lead that taught the folk of Thrace
The love for tender boys, to pluck the buds,
The brief springtime, with manhood still to come.