Fragment 286: The Influence of Spring by Ibycus

In Spring, bedewed with river-streams,
From where, for everlasting, gleams
The garden of th’ Hesperides
Blossom Cydonian apple-trees; —
In Spring the saplings freshly shine,
Beneath the parent-vine
In shadow and in breeze;
But me Love’s mighty power,
That sleepeth never an hour,
From Venus rushing, burneth with desire,
As with lightning fire;
Black, as the Thracian wind,
He seizes on my mind,
With dry delirious heat
Inflames my reason’s seat,
And, in the centre of my soul,
Keeps empire for a child, and holds
Uncheck’d control.

From: http://elfinspell.com/GRPIbycus.html

Date: 7^th century BCE (original in Greek); 1833 (translation in English)

By: Ibycus (6^th century BCE)

Translated by: Henry Nelson Coleridge (1798-1843)

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Tags: 1833, 7th century bce, fragment 286 the influence of spring, henry nelson coleridge, ibycus, in spring bedewed with river-streams, poetry