B00ARI2G5C EBOK (27 page)

To Ops and Rhea deeply I have bowed,

The Fates themselves, sisters of Chaos, your

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Sisters indeed, I saw a day ago or more—

But on your like I never yet have gazed:

Words fail me now, I am delighted and amazed.

THE PHORCYADS
. This spirit seems to be intelligent.

MEPHISTOPHELES
. Yet no bard sings your praises!

Wonderment

Fills me: how can this be? And I have never

Seen any likeness of you: sculptors should endeavour

To carve your venerable shapes, and not

Juno, Athene, Venus, and that lot.

THE PHORCYADS
. Sunk in deep solitude, in still night pondering,

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We three have never thought of such a thing!

MEPHISTOPHELES
. Indeed, why should you! Hidden from the world

You dwell, beholding none, by none beheld.

By rights you should live in some courtly place

Where wealth and art shed equal light and grace,

Where blocks of marble, hurrying to display

Themselves, rush into life as heroes every day;

Where—

THE PHORCYADS
. Do not tempt us! Speak no more of this;

How would it help us, knowing what we miss?

Night-born, akin to darkest night alone,

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Known scarcely to ourselves, and by no others known.

MEPHISTOPHELES
. That doesn’t matter greatly, even so;

One can transfer to other selves, you know.

Your one eye and one tooth suffice for three:

Would it not then be good mythology

To squeeze your triune essence into two,

And lend the image of the third of you,

Briefly, to me?

ONE OF THE THREE
. Well, sisters, shall we try?

THE OTHERS
. Yes, let’s; but keep the tooth and keep the eye!

MEPHISTOPHELES
. But with those vital features disconnected,

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How can a perfect likeness be effected?

ONE OF THE THREE
. You must just shut one eye, no problem there;

And one of your side-fangs you can lay bare.

Your profile will at once accomplish thus

A sisterly similitude with us.

MEPHISTOPHELES
. T
OO
great an honour; well, so be it!

THE PHORCYADS
.       Done!

MEPHISTOPHELES
[
with a Phorcyad’sprofile
].

So here I stand, Chaos’s well-beloved son!

THE PHORCYADS
. We are her daughters, by undoubted right!

MEPHISTOPHELES
. And to my shame, I’m a hermaphrodite.

THE PHORCYADS
. Sisters, how beautiful! We’re a new three,

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Two eyes now and two teeth for you and me!

MEPHISTOPHELES.
No eye must see me now, I must hide well:

I’ll dive right down and scare the fiends in hell.

The moon stands motionless at its zenith
]

THE SIRENS
[
reclining here and there on the cliffs, playing on flutes and singing]
.

Once, in Thessaly’s deep night,

By their wicked magic’s might,

Witches charmed you to the ground:

Now from your dark orbit gaze

Calmly on the tremulous

Sea, where glittering radiance plays,

Swarming, scattering brightness round.

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Lady, shine upon your slaves

Leaping, tumbling from the waves:

Moon, look graciously on us!

NEREIDS AND TRITONS
[
as marine prodigies]
.

Let a shriller note resound

Through the seas with piercing sound:

People of the deep, appear!

From the storm’s dark gulfs in dread

To these havens we have fled;

Your sweet singing draws us here.

Golden chains so rich and bright,

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See, we wear them with delight:

Crowns and gems adorn us too,

Bracelets, girdles—all these you

Gave us: for such treasures lay

Swallowed here in wrecks of ships

Lured to ruin by your lips,

You, the demons of our bay!

THE SIRENS
. Well we know where fish are gliding,

Through cool waters twisting, sliding,

Happy, swimming where they wish.

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Now we watch your festive motion:

Show us, creatures of the ocean,

Show us you are more than fish!

THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS
.

We intended this before

We approached your rocky shore.

Sisters, brothers, come! To prove

We are more than fish, we’ll move

Swiftly to the proper place,

Instantly to Samothrace.

[
They depart
.]

THE SIRENS
. And vanishing so,

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Carried off by a fair breeze,

To that island they go

Where the lofty Cabiri
*
dwell;

What shall they accomplish then?

The Cabiri! Strange gods are these:

They beget themselves ever again,

But what they are they cannot tell.

Sweet Moon, stay graciously

Exalted, stationary!

Let night linger, let day

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Not drive us away!

THALES
[
on the shore
, to
THE HOMUNCULUS]
.

I’d gladly visit Nereus with you,

And the old fellow’s cave’s quite near here too;

But he’s a real curmudgeon, a thick-head

And a sour-puss, it must be said.

He’s never pleased, he seems to find

Fault with the whole race of mankind.

Yet he has second sight, and so

Everyone treats him with respect: they come

To do him homage, and to some

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He has done good services, I know.

THE HOMUNCULUS
. Give him a knock, let’s try it anyway!

My glass and flame can stand it, I dare say.

NEREUS. DO
I hear human voices? ’Pon my word,

What rage they put me in! What an absurd

Creature man is, striving to reach divinity,

Yet stuck in his own image till infinity!

I could have lived in blessed peace, and all

Those years I felt the need to serve great men;

But when they did their deeds, you’d have thought then

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I’d never given them advice at all.

THALES
. And yet men trust you, Old Man of the Sea;

We need your wisdom, do not spurn us! See,

This flame—in human likeness, it is true—

Turns for advice devotedly to you.

NEREUS
. Advice! When did men ever heed it? Wise

Words merely freeze to death in ears of stone.

Deeds self-discredited as soon as done

Still teach the headstrong nothing. When his eyes

Roved lustfully to Helen, Paris heard

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My fatherly warning. Boldly there he stood

On the Greek shore; I told him what I could,

For I foresaw it: fire and smoke upstirred,

Bloodying the air, roof-timbers all aglow,

Slaughter and carnage down below;

Troy’s ordeal, captured in a poet’s spell
*

That binds three thousand years with dread and joy.

An old man’s words amused that insolent boy:

He yielded to his whim, and Ilium fell—

A giant’s corpse, great as the pains it bore;

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Its stiff flesh now wild birds of Pindus tore.

Ulysses too—did I not prophesy

Circe’s deceits, the monster with one eye,

The folly of his men, his long-delayed

Return, and all the rest of it? It made

No difference, till the tossing sea upcast

Him on a hospitable shore at last.

THALES
. As a wise man such folly gives you pain,

But let your kind heart bid you try again:

The pleasure of an ounce of thanks outweighs

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The dull weight of a hundred thankless days.

For our request’s no trifle: this young creature

Seeks wisely to acquire a bodily nature.

NEREUS
. My mood was cheerful; must you spoil it for me?

I had seen a quite different day before me:

I have told the Graces of the sea, my daughters

The Dorids, all to assemble in these waters.

Neither Olympus bears, nor your dry land,

Such lovely moving shapes, gracefully and

Enchantingly from the sea-dragon leaping,

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Mounting the sea-god’s horses; gently thus

The element takes them into its keeping,

Even on the foam they ride victorious.

Venus’s rainbow-coloured chariot

Of shell now brings the loveliest of the lot,

Galatea: for since the Cyprian left us, she

Too is revered at Paphos equally.

As Aphrodite’s heiress, chariot-throne

And temple-city now are both her own.

Away! A father’s joy must fill this hour;

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My heart must not be hard, nor my tongue sour.

Ask Proteus! He has much strange information,

He’ll tell you about birth and transformation.

[
He moves away towards the sea
.]

THALES
. That didn’t help; even if we had him here,

Proteus would just dissolve and disappear;

And even if one can hold him, all he’ll say

Is merely meant to puzzle and mislead

The questioner. But, since it seems you need

Some such advice, come, let’s be on our way!

[
Exeunt
.]

THE SIRENS
[
on the rocks above]
.

What’s this towards us riding,

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Through the wave-kingdom gliding?

A wind-borne company,

White sails they seem to be:

Mermaids that shine so bright,

Transfigured with strange light.

Let us descend: you hear

Their voices drawing near.

THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS
.

Look! In our hands we bring

You all a joyful thing!

In this great turtle-shell

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Are gods: now praise them well!

See how their stern forms shine,

Scattering light divine!

THE SIRENS
. Tiny of stature,

Mighty in power,

Wrecked seamen’s refuge,

Gods of an ancient age!

THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS
. Now the Cabiri rule

This peaceful festival,

The wild waves they can bind

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And Neptune will be kind.

THE SIRENS
. You are the stronger:

When the sea’s anger

Wrecks ships, the crew

Is saved by you.

THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS
.

We’ve brought you three of them;

The fourth refused to come,

He said he was the best

Who thinks for all the rest.

THE SIRENS
. One god may well deride

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Another; beware such pride!

Ever fearing to fall,

You should revere them all.

THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS
.

Seven they should really be.

THE SIRENS
. Where are the other three?

THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS
.

We’ve still not worked that out;

In Olympus they’d know, no doubt.

And the eighth subsists there somehow

He’s not been thought of till now.

They are favourably disposed,

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But none is yet fully composed.

They are peerless beings, each

By an onward urge obsessed,

Hungry with a strange unrest

For a goal beyond their reach.

THE SIRENS
. Let all reverence be done

To the moon, to the sun,

And where else it is due:

This we think best to do.

THE NEREIDS AND TRITONS
.

How high now our fame flowers,

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Who bring this festive pleasure!

THE SIRENS
. The heroes of ancient story

Fell short of such glory,

Though their high fame endures.

The Golden Fleece was their treasure:

The Cabiri are yours!

[
Repeated in chorus
.]

The Golden Fleece was their treasure:

The cabin are{ours yours

[
THE NEREIDS
and
TRITONS
pass by.]

THE HOMUNCULUS
. Misshapen things! They look to me

Like dreary pots of clay.

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But pundits probe this mystery

With their blunt noddles to this day.

THALES
. Old pots are what they want! An old coin must

Gain extra value from its rust.

PROTEUS
[
unseen]
.

I like that! As an old romancer,

I always find nonsense the soundest answer.

THALES
. Where are you, Proteus?

PROTEUS
[
speaking like a ventriloquist, nearby and then from adistance]
.

                     Here! and here!

THALES
. By all means play your old trick; but, my dear

Friend, spare me idle words! I know

You speak from where you’re not.

PROTEUS
[
as if from a long way off]
. Hullo! Goodbye!

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THALES
. He’s very close. Now shine your light!

He’s as inquisitive as a fish;

He’s stuck now in some shape-shift, but a bright

Flame will entice him where you wish.

THE HOMUNCULUS
.