Am I abandoned? Does Messala sweep
Yon wide Aegean wave, not any more
He, nor my mates, remembering where I weep,
Struck down by fever on this alien shore?

Spare me, dark death! I have no mother here,
To clasp my relics to her widowed breast;
No sister, to pour forth with hallowing tear
Assyrian incense where my ashes rest.

Nor Delia, who, before she said adieu,
Asked omens fair at every potent shrine.
Thrice did the ministrants give blessings true,
The thrice-cast lot returned the lucky sign.

All promised safe return; but she had fears
And doubting sorrows, which implored my stay;
While I, though all was ready, dried her tears,
And found fresh pretext for one more delay.

An evil bird, I cried, did near me flit,
Or luckless portent thrust my plans aside;
Or Saturn's day, unhallowed and unfit,
Forbade a journey from my Delia's side.

Full oft, when starting on the fatal track,
My stumbling feet foretold unhappy hours:
Ah! he who journeys when love calls him back,
Should know he disobeys celestial powers!

Help me, great Goddess! For thy healing power
The votive tablets on thy shrine display.
See Delia there outwatch the midnight hour,
Sitting, white-stoled, until the dawn of day!

Each day her tresses twice she doth unbind,
And sings, the loveliest of the Pharian band.
O that my fathers' gods this prayer could find!
Gods of my hearth and of my native land!

How happily men lived when Saturn reigned!
Ere weary highways crossed the fair young world,
Ere lofty ships the purple seas disdained,
Their swelling canvas to the winds unfurled!

No roving seaman, from a distant course,
Filled full of far-fetched wares his frail ship's hold:
At home, the strong bull stood unyoked; the horse
Endured no bridle in the age of gold.

Men's houses had no doors? No firm-set rock
Marked field from field by niggard masters held.
The very oaks ran honey; the mild flock
Brought home its swelling udders, uncompelled.

Nor wrath nor war did that blest kingdom know;
No craft was taught in old Saturnian time,
By which the frowning smith, with blow on blow,
Could forge the furious sword and so much crime.

Now Jove is king! Now have we carnage foul,
And wreckful seas, and countless ways to die.
Nay! spare me, Father Jove, for on my soul
Nor perjury, nor words blaspheming lie.

If longer life I ask of Fate in vain,
O'er my frail dust this superscription be:—
"Here Death's dark hand TIBULLUS doth detain,Messala's follower over land and sea!"
Then, since my soul to love did always yield,
Let Venus guide it the immortal way,
Where dance and song fill all th' Elysian field,
And music that will never die away.

There many a song-bird with his fellow sails,
And cheerly carols on the cloudless air;
Each grove breathes incense; all the happy vales
O'er-run with roses, numberless and fair.

Bright bands of youth with tender maidens stray,
Led by the love-god all delights to share;
And each fond lover death once snatched away
Winds an immortal myrtle in his hair.

Far, far from such, the dreadful realms of gloom
By those black streams of Hades circled round,
Where viper-tressed, fierce ministers of doom,—
The Furies drive lost souls from bound to bound.

The doors of brass, and dragon-gate of Hell,
Grim Cerberus guards, and frights the phantoms back:
Ixion, who by Juno's beauty fell,
Gives his frail body to the whirling rack.

Stretched o'er nine roods, lies Tityos accursed,
The vulture at his vitals feeding slow;
There Tantalus, whose bitter, burning thirst
The fleeting waters madden as they flow.

There Danaus' daughters Venus' anger feel,
Filling their urns at Lethe all in vain;—
And there's the wretch who would my Delia steal,And wish me absent on a long campaign!
O chaste and true! In thy still house shall sit
The careful crone who guards thy virtuous bed;
She tells thee tales, and when the lamps are lit,
Reels from her distaff the unending thread.

Some evening, after tasks too closely plied,
My Delia, drowsing near the harmless dame,
All sweet surprise, will find me at her side,
Unheralded, as if from heaven I came.

Then to my arms, in lovely disarray,
With welcome kiss, thy darling feet will fly!
O happy dream and prayer! O blissful day!
What golden dawn, at last, shall bring thee nigh?