B00ARI2G5C EBOK (28 page)

My glass shall give its maximum radiation;

But gently, to avoid disintegration.

PROTEUS
[
in the shape of a giant turtle]
.

What’s this that shines so prettily?

THALES
[
covering up
THE HOMUNCULUS]
.

Good! Take a closer look! You’ll be

Rewarded for your trifling pains. But you

Must come, please, on two human feet; then we’ll

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Gladly, but on our terms, reveal

This treasure hidden from your view.

PROTEUS
[
appearing in a noble form]
.

You’ve not forgotten your old worldly arts.

THALES
. You’re still, I see, a man of many parts.

[
He has uncovered
,
THE HOMUNCULUS.]

PROTEUS
[
astonished]
.

A shining midget! This I’ve never seen.

THALES
. He wants advice; he’s only been

Half born, it seems, in a most curious fashion.

To be born fully, that’s now his great passion.

His intellectual qualities are many,

But earthly solid life he has hardly any.

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This glass retort’s still all that gives him weight;

His wish now’s to become incorporate.

PROTEUS
. A case of true parthenogenesis!

Before he should be, he already is.

THALES
[
sotto voce]
.

And there’s another thing that’s critical:

He seems to me to be hermaphroditical.

PROTEUS.
So much the better: he arrives

In this world with a choice of lives!

But here’s no need for much discourse:

In the wide sea you must begin your course!

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At first one’s small, but with great pleasure

One swallows creatures of still tinier measure;

Gradually one will thus augment

And shape oneself for high accomplishment.

THE HOMUNCULUS.
How soft and fresh the air! This smell

Of moist fertility contents me well.

PROTEUS
. That I can well believe, dear boy!

And further on there’s still more to enjoy.

This narrow salient of the sandy shore—

It has an atmosphere still more

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Ineffable. And there we’ll get the best

Sight of the pageant as it floats in view.

So come with me!

THALES
.               Ill join you too.

THE HOMUNCULUS
. March on then, our great threefold spirit-quest!

[
TELCHINES
from Rhodes, on hippocampi and sea-dragons, brandishing Neptune’s
trident.]

CHORUS
. The trident of Neptune, that rules the wild ocean:

We forged it, we made it! When densest commotion

Of storm-clouds unfolds in the Thunder-god’s hour,

Then Neptune responds to his terrible power.

From heaven the lightnings flash jaggedly down,

But skywards the spray leaps as waves are upthrown;

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Seafarers in terror are tossed to and fro,

Till the deep overwhelms them and sucks them below.

And so he has lent us his sceptre today,

And calm is the sea as we hover and play.

THE SIRENS
.    Hail, you Helios devotees,

Sacred to calm skies and seas!

See, the moon too can excite

Homage on her festive night!

THE TELCHINES
.

Sweet goddess high up in the zenith, rejoice

For your brother the sun is extolled with one voice!

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From the blest isle of Rhodes his praises ascend

To your listening ear in a hymn without end.

When he starts his day’s journey and when it is done,

His face glows on us, the great fiery sun;

On our mountains, our cities, our shore and our sea,

The god’s favour shines, they are lovely to see.

No clouds linger round us; if any intrude,

With a ray and a breeze his pure sky is renewed.

Now his hundred reflections the god may behold,

The ephebe, the colossus his greatness unfold.

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For we were the first who such images made

And in man’s noble likeness the high gods displayed.

PROTEUS
. Let them sing on in vain self-praise!

The sacred sun’s life-giving rays

Mock their dead handiwork to scorn.

They carry on, they sculpt, they cast,

A lump of bronze stands up at last,

And they think something has been born.

Why, these proud forgers, they’re no good!

Look now where their god-statues stood:

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An earthquake knocked them flat! Since then

They’ve all been melted down again.

Say what you will, terrestrial life

Is one long toil and one long strife;

Water-life’s better! Now I’ll be

Proteus-Dolphin. Come with me

To the eternal deep!

[
He transforms himself
] It’s done!

Mount on my back, you’ll be well carried,

And all will turn out well. Be married

To the great ocean from now on.

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THALES
. Yield to your laudable temptation:

Seek the beginnings of creation!

Be poised to act, don’t hesitate!

Move onward by eternal norms

Through many thousand thousand forms,

And reach at last the human state.

[
THE HOMUNCULUS
mounts the
PROTEUS-DOLPHIN.]

PROTEUS
. Come, as a spirit, to the wet

Expanse! Full freedom there you’ll get

To live and move, to grow and be.

But don’t strive to a higher level:

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You’ll go completely to the devil

Once you achieve humanity.

THALES
. Well, that depends; it’s no bad thing, I’d say,

To be a sound man in one’s day.

PROTEUS
. One of your sort, perhaps; they do

Last a while longer, that is true.

For many centuries I’ve seen your face

Among the pale shades in this place.

THE SIRENS
      [
on the rocks]
.

See, a ring of cloudlets round it,

Shines the moon in rich display:

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Doves aflame with love surround it,

Silver-pinioned, white as day!

Paphian Aphrodite’s favour

Sends her amorous love-birds here,

Lends our feast its fullest savour,

Makes our joy complete and clear.

NEREUS
        [
approaching
THALES]
.

That moon-halo’s what the night-

Farer calls imagination,

But we spirits see it right,

Know the proper explanation:

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Those are sacred doves, attendant

On my daughter’s shell-borne throne,

In mysterious flight resplendent,

Learnt of old and strangely known.

THALES
.        That is how I see it too:

An honest man’s contented view

Of what is holy, what is best,

Snugly in his heart will nest.

PSYLLI
and
MARSI
[
riding on sea-bulb, sea-calves, andsea-rams
.] In Cyprus’s rude hollow caves,

Undrowned by seaquake waves,

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By earthquake shock unmarred:

As in days long ago

The deepest joy we know,

For ever the breezes blow,

The goddess’s chariot we guard;

And where nights murmur and play

We bring through the weave of sweet water

The sea’s loveliest daughter,

Unseen by eyes of today.

Our activity, quiet, incessant,

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Fears no Eagle, no Lion with wings,

Cares neither for Cross nor Crescent;
*

Above us they dwell, these things

That war for their changing sway,

That rule and usurp and slay,

Sweeping crops and cities away.

But we, as ever before,

Bring the dear goddess here once more.

THE SIRENS
.    Circling swiftly, lightly moving,

Round the chariot, in and out,

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Line by line all interweaving,

Coil by coil and turn about:

Come, you stalwart Nereids, wild

Buxom womenfolk! And you,

Tender Dorids, bring her too,

Galatea, your mother’s child!

She is like the gods, for she

Has a deathless gravity,

Though a mortal woman’s grace

Draws men to her lovely face.

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THE DORIDS
[
riding past
NEREUS
as a chorus, all on dolphins]
.

Lend us, moon, your light and shade,

For our father now must see

These sweet youths with whom we played

And have wedded instantly!

[
To
NEREUS.]

These young men we saved from death

In the roaring breakers’ greed,

Warmed them back to light and breath,

Bedding them on moss and reed.

They give thanks for life restored:

Ardent passion’s our reward—

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Look upon them favourably!

NEREUS
. Excellent! Two advantages in one:

A work of mercy which is also fun.

THE DORIDS
. Since you praise us, father, surely

You’ll not grudge our well-earned joys:

Let us have and hold securely

Ever-young, immortal boys!

NEREUS
. Enjoy your captives; fine grown men

You’ll make of them. But why ask me

To grant them immortality?

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That’s something only Zeus can do.

The sea-waves rock and cradle you:

Nothing lasts there, not even love.

So when it flits away, just shove

Them gently back ashore again.

THE DORIDS
. Dear boys, we love you, but sad goodbyes

We must say, and our bonds must sever!

We asked for love that would last for ever;

The gods decree otherwise.

THE YOUTHS
. That’s quite all right for a sailor-lad!

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Just carry on kissing; we’ve never had

It so good before, such a time as this;

And what we don’t have we don’t miss.

[
GALATEA
approaches, riding the shell-chariot
.]

NEREUS
. It’s you, my beloved!

GALATEA
. Oh father! I gaze

With such joy! Oh, how briefly the chariot stays!

NEREUS
. Gone, gone from me already; out of sight,

Drawn past by the circling dolphin motion;

What do they care for the innermost heart’s devotion!

Take me with you! Alas, if they might!—

And yet with that one look I am content

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For my whole year of banishment.

THALES
. Hail, and all hail to you!

How beautiful, how true

This sense that flowers, that fills me through and through:

In water all things began to thrive!!

By water all things are kept alive!

Grant us your bounty for ever, great ocean:

Send us clouds, for if you did not,

Abundant streams, for if you did not,

And rivers in meandering motion,

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And great waterways—for if you did not,

Where would the mountains, the plains, and the world be then?

By you fresh life lives and is sustained again.

ECHO
[
from the general chorus of all present]
. From you fresh life flows and is born again.

NEREUS
. Back into the distance swerving,

Their eyes and my eyes meet no more;

In a great chain of circles curving,

Dancing, in festive spirit moving,

The countless host forsakes the shore.

But Galatea’s chariot-shell

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I still see, yes, again I see:

Bright as a star to me

Through the crowd I know it well.

What we love shines through

The throng, far though it seems;

Still it glistens, still gleams,

Ever near, ever true.

THE HOMUNCULUS
. In this sweet water-world,

Wherever I shed my light

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Is beautiful and bright.

PROTEUS
. In this, life’s water-world,

As never before, your light

Makes music loud and bright.

NEREUS
. What new mystery now in the midst of the dancing

Reveals itself to us, our vision entrancing?

What flames round the shell at the goddess’s feet?

It blazes up strongly, then gently and sweet,

As if touched by the pulses of love and desire.

THALES
. The Homunculus, ravished by Proteus!… That fire

Is his powerful longing, its symptoms I know;

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I sense his loud anguish, the throb of his woe.

He will shatter his glass on her glistening throne:

Now he flashes, he gleams, now he spills and is gone.

THE SIRENS
. What fiery wonder transfigures the sea?

The waves splinter and glitter, what storm can this be?

All shining and swaying, a progress of light,

Those bodies aglow as they move through the night,

And the whirl of the fire all about and around!

Now let Eros, first cause of all, reign and be crowned!

Hail to the sea, the shifting tide,

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By sacred fire beautified!

Hail to the waves, hail to the flame,

Hail, this event without a name!

TUTTISSIMI
.   Hail to the mild and gentle breeze!