[TRANSLATIONS.]

THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, LIB. I.,

Quis multâ gracilis te puer in rosâ.

Rendered almost word for word, without rhyme, according to the Latin measure, as near as the language will permit.

WHAT slender youth, bedewed with liquid odours,
Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave,

Pyrrha ? For whom bind'st thou

In wreaths thy golden hair,

Plain in thy neatness? Oh, how oft shall he
On faith and changed gods complain, and seas
Rough with black winds and storms
Unwonted shall admire,

Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold;
Who always vacant, always amiable,

Hopes thee, of flattering gales
Unmindful! Hapless they

To whom thou untried seem'st fair! Me, in my vowed
Picture, the sacred wall declares to have hung

My dank and dropping weeds

To the stern God of Sea.

[As Milton inserts the original with his translation, as if to challenge comparison, it is right that we should do so too.]

AD PYRRHAM. ODE V.

Horatius ex Pyrrhæ illecebris tanquam e naufragio enataverat, cujus amore irretitos affirmat esse miseros.

QUIS multâ gracilis te puer in rosâ
Perfusus liquidis urget odoribus

Grato, Pyrrha, sub antro?

Cui flavam religas comam

Simplex munditie? Heu, quoties fidem
Mutatosque Deos flebit, et aspera
Nigris æquora ventis
Emirabitur insolens,

Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aureá;
Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem,
Sperat, nescius auræ

Faliacis Miseri quibus

Intentata nites. Me tabulâ sacer
Votivâ paries indicat uvida

Suspendisse potenti

Vestimenta maris Deo.

April, 1648.-J. M.

Nine of the Psalms done into Metre; wherein all, but what is in a different character, are the very words of the Text, translated from the original.

PSALM LXXY,

I THOU Shepherd that dost Israel keep,

Give ear in time of need,

Who leadest like a flock of sheep

Thy loved Joseph's seed,

That sitt'st between the Cherubs bright,
Between their wings outspread;

Shine forth, and from thy cloud give light,
And on our foes thy dread.

2 In Ephraim's view and Benjamin's,

And in Manasseh's sight,

Awake1 thy strength, come, and be seen
To save us by thy might.

3 Turn us again; thy grace divine
To us, O God, vouchsafe;

Cause thou thy face on us to shine,
And then we shall be safe.

4 Lord God of Hosts, how long wilt thou,
How long wilt thou declare

Thy 2 smoking wrath, and angry brow,
Ágainst thy people's prayer?

5 Thou feed'st them with the bread of tears;
Their bread with tears they eat;

And mak'st them largely3 drink the tears

Wherewith their cheeks are wet. 6 A strife thou mak'st us and a prey To every neighbour foe;

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Among themselves they laugh, they play,
And flouts at us they throw.

7 Return us, and thy grace divine,
O God of Hosts, vouchsafe;

Cause thou thy face on us to shine,

And then we shall be safe.

8 A Vine from Egypt thou hast brought,
Thy free love made it thine,

And drov'st out nations proud and haut,
To plant this lovely Vine.

9 Thou didst prepare for it a place,
And root it deep and fast,
That it began to grow apace,

And filled the land at last.

10 With her green shade that covered all
The hills were overspread;

Her boughs as high as cedars tall
Advanced their lofty head.

II Her branches on the western side
Down to the sea she sent,
And upward to that river wide

Her other branches went.

12 Why hast thou laid her hedges low,
And broken down her fence,

That all may pluck her, as they go,
With rudest violence?

13 The tusked boar out of the wood

Upturns it by the roots;

Wild beasts there browse, and make their food

Her grapes and tender shoots.

14 Return now, God of Hosts; look down From Heaven, thy seat divine;

4 Filgnagu.

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Behold us, but without a frown,
And visit this thy Vine.

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15 Visit this Vine, which thy right hand Hath set, and planted long,

And the young branch, that for thyself
Thou hast made firm and strong.

16 But now it is consumed with fire,
And cut with axes down;

They perish at thy dreadful ire,
At thy rebuke and frown.

17 Upon the Man of thy right hand
Let thy good hand be laid;

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Upon the Son of Man, whom Thou
Strong for thyself hast made.

18 So shall we not go back from thee
To ways of sin and shame:
Quicken us thou; then gladly wę
Shall call upon thy Name.

19 Return us, and thy grace divine,
Lord God of Hosts, vouchsafe:
Cause thou thy face on us to shine,

And then we shall be safe.

PSALM LXXXI.

I To God our strength sing loud and clear;
Sing loud to God our King;

To Jacob's God, that all may hear,
Loud acclamations ring.

2 Prepare a hymn, prepare a song;
The timbrel hither bring;
The cheerful psaltery bring along,
And harp with pleasant string.

3 Blow, as is wont, in the new moon,
With trumpets' lofty sound,

The appointed time, the day whereon
Our solemn feast comes round.

4 This was a statute given of old
For Israel to observe,

A law of Jacob's God to hold,

From whence they might not swerve.

5 This he a testimony ordained

In Joseph, not to change,

When as he passed through Egypt-land;
The tongue I heard was strange.

6 From burden, and from slavish toil,
I set his shoulder free;

His hands from pots, and miry soil,
Delivered were by me.

7 When trouble did thee sore assail,
On me then didst thou call,
And I to free thee did not fail,
And led thee out of thrall.

I answered thee in thunder deep,
With clouds encompassed round;
I tried thee at the water steep
Of Meriba renowned.

8 Hear, O my people, hearken well:
I testify to thee,

Thou ancient stock of Israel,
If thou wilt list to me:

9 Throughout the land of thy abode
No alien God shall be,

Nor shalt thou to a foreign god

In honour bend thy knee.

Io I am the Lord thy God, which brought
Thee out of Egypt-land;

Ask large enough, and I, besought,
Will grant thy full demand.

II And yet my people would not hear,
Nor hearken to my voice;

And Israel, whom I loved so dear,
Misliked me for his choice.

12 Then did I leave them to their will,
And to their wandering mind ;
Their own conceits they followed still
Their own devices blind.

13 Oh that my people would be wise,
To serve me all their days!

And oh that Israel would advise
To walk my righteous ways!

14 Then would I soon bring down their foes,
That now so proudly rise,

And turn my hand against all those
That are their enemies.

15 Who hate the Lord should then be fain
To bow to him and bend;

But they, his people, should remain;

Their time should have no end.

16 And he would feed them from the shock
With flour of finest wheat,

And satisfy them from the rock
With honey for their meat.

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