TRANSLATIONS. THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, LIB. I. WHAT slender youth bedew'd with liquid odours, In wreaths thy golden hair, Plain in thy neatness? O, how oft shall he Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold, Hopes thee, of flattering gales Unmindful. Hapless they, To whom thou untried seem'st fair! Me, in my vow'd Picture, the sacred wall declares to have hung My dank and dropping weeds To the stern god of sea. FROM GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH. BRUTUS thus addresses DIANA in the country of Leogecia: Walk'st on the rowling spheres, and through the deep: For aye, with temples vow'd and virgin quires. To whom, sleeping before the altar, DIANA answers in a vision the same night: Brutus, far to the west, in the ocean wide, Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies, FROM DANTE. AH, Constantine! of how much ill was cause, FROM DANTE. FOUNDED in chaste and humble poverty, 'Gainst them that raised thee dost thou lift thy horn, FROM ARIOSTO. THEN pass'd he to a flowery mountain green, FROM HORACE. WHOM do we count a good man? Whom but he FROM EURIPIDES. THIS is true liberty when freeborn men, FROM HORACE. LAUGHING, to teach the truth, What hinders? as some teachers give to boys FROM HORACE. JOKING decides great things, Stronger and better oft than earnest can. FROM SOPHOCLES. 'TIS you that say it, not I. You do the deeds, And your ungodly deeds find me the words. FROM SENECA. THERE can be slain No sacrifice to God more acceptable, Than an unjust and wicked king. PSALM I. a Done into verse, 1653. BLESS'D is the man who hath not walk'd astray For the Lord knows the upright way of the just, PSALM II. Done August 8, 1653. Terzette. WHY do the Gentiles tumult, and the nations Let us break off, say they, by strength of hand Their twisted cords: He, who in heaven doth dwell, Speak to them in his wrath, and in his fell On Sion, my holy hill. I will declare the Lord to me hath said, This day ask of me, and the grant is made; The heathen; and as thy conquest to be sway'd, Earth's utmost bounds, them shalt thou bring full low a Metrical psalmody was much cultivated in this age of fanaticism. Milton's father is a composer of some of the tunes in Ravencroft's Psalms.-T. WARTON. "A literal version of the Psalms may boldly be asserted impracticable; for, if it were not, a poet so great as Milton would not, even in his earliest youth, have proved himself so very little of a formidable rival, as he has done, to Thomas Sternhold." Mason's 'Essays on English Church Music," 1795, p. 177. In the last of these translations, however, as Mr. Warton observes, are some very poetical expressions.-TODD. And now be wise at length, ye kings averse; If once his wrath take fire like fuel sere, 25 10 33 20 PSALM III. AUGUST 9, 1653.-When he fled from Absalom. LORD, how many are my foes! How many those, That in arms against me rise! Many are they, That of my life distrustfully thus say; But thou, Lord, art my shield, my glory, The exalter of my head I count: Unto Jehovah: He full soon replied, I lay and slept; I waked again; For my sustain Was the Lord. Of The populous rout many millions I fear not, though, encamping round about, They pitch against me their pavilions. Rise, Lord; save me, my God; for Thou Hast smote ere now On the cheek-bone all my foes; Of men abhorr'd Hast broke the teeth. This help was from the Lord; PSALM IV. AUGUST 10, 1653. ANSWER me when I call, And set at large; now spare, Now pity me, and hear my earnest prayer. Great ones, how long will ye My glory have in scorn? b My sustain. The verb converted into a substantive.-TODD. 15 To love, to seek, to prize, Things false and vain, and nothing else but lies? Yet know, the Lord hath chose, Chose to himself apart, The good and meek of heart; (For whom to choose He knows) Jehovah from on high Will hear my voice, what time to him I cry. Be awed and do not sin; Speak to your hearts alone, Upon your beds each one, And be at peace within. Offer the offerings just Of righteousness, and in Jehovah trust. Many there be that say, Talking like this world's brood: Who yet will show us good? But, Lord, thus let me pray; On us lift up the light, Lift up the favour of thy countenance bright. 30 Into my heart more joy And gladness thou hast put, Than when a year of glut Their stores doth overcloy, And from their plenteous grounds Thou, Lord, alone, in safety makest me dwell. PSALM V. AUGUST 12, 1653. JEHOVAH, to my words give ear, My meditation weigh; The voice of my complaining hear, My King and God; for unto thee I pray. Shalt in the morning hear; In the morning I to thee with choice Will rank my prayers, and watch till thou appear. For thou art not a God that takes In wickedness delight; Evil with thee no biding makes; Fools or mad men, stand not within thy sight. Thou hatest, and them unblest Thou wilt destroy that speak a lie; 5 10 15 The bloody and guileful man God doth detest. |