TRANSLATIONS THE CENTAUR. (Englisht from Maurice de Guérin. ) WITHIN these mountain-caverns I was born, And, like this valley's river, whose first drops Fell the first moment of my new-made life Into the dark of a remote abode, Leaving its silentness untroubled still. When comes our mother's hour of travailing, Nor wrestling in a doubtful fight, we pass 5 IO Life's first hard struggles; yet, less soon we go Forth from our caves than from your cradles ye 15 Because we hold that it behoveth best To keep intact and folden close and calm The earliest seasons of existence,- days Fill'd by the gods. My growth had almost all Its course within these shades where I was born. 1 I rov'd among the shadows. 'What is it, 20 25 30 35 And what strange opposites that make her come Thence every day emotion'd diversely?' For she would come to me, now quick with joy, Now sad and trailing like a wounded life. * 40 By 'outside' I have translated de Guérin's 'ces dehors,' of which Georges Sand says: Cette expression est étrange, peu grammaticale, peut-étre; mais je n'en vois pas de plus belle, et de plus saisissante pour rendre le sentiment mystérieux d'un monde inconnu.' By certain tokens in her step; 'twas shed On, on, to guess towards what my spirit yearn'd. 45 : There wrought a great disquietude in me ; 50 Towards what my arms should stretch, towards what my Around the centaur's bust, the hero's frame, The oak-tree's trunk :-My hands have tried the rocks, 55 The waters, and the innumerable plants, And the most subtle impressions of the air : Oft in the blind, calm night I lift mine arms To augur of my way— Melampus, see, How worn my feet! and, nathless, though I am Come days when, in full light, upon the heights That came in youth, and with the same impulse, 60 I toss mine arms, and use all left to me Of that youth's swiftness. Alternations came Upon these troublings, of long quietude Of growth and all the gradual life that rose 65 70 Unchanging drank I of the boon the gods Shed through my being. O'er the secret charm Of mere life-consciousness reign calms and shades. 75 I owe that teaching to your silent care, Pure from the very bosom of the gods! Melampus, who would'st know of the centaurs' life, 80 85 90 The oldest and the saddest of them all? Long time it is since I have liv'd their life; Now will I tell thee something of my youth,— 'Twas easy task To tell of my first years, because they were 95 100 It was that fed me; that is well retain'd 105 And with no trouble told. A god, besought To tell his life, would tell it in two words. Full of unresting motion was my life; My footsteps knew no limit : in prideful strength I wander'd, stretching out in these wild wastes, IIO On every side. One day, a vale unlov'd A man, who walkt along the river's bank And I despis'd him, "for behold," I said, 115 |