Metamorphoses by Ovid; Melville A. D.; Kenney E. J
Author:Ovid; Melville, A. D.; Kenney, E. J. [Ovid; Melville, A. D.; Kenney, E. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 019283472X
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1998-01-15T07:00:00+00:00
VENUS AND ADONIS
Time glides in secret and his wings deceive;
Nothing is swifter than the years. That son,
Child of his sister and his grandfather,
So lately bark-enswathed, so lately born,
Then a most lovely infant, then a youth,
And now a man more lovely than the boy,
Was Venus’ darling (Venus’!) and avenged
His mother’s passion. Once, when Venus’ son
Was kissing her, his quiver dangling down,
A jutting arrow, unbeknown, had grazed
Her breast. She pushed the boy away.
In fact the wound was deeper than it seemed,
Though unperceived at first. Enraptured by
The beauty of a man, she cared no more
For her Cythera’s shores nor sought again
Her sea-girt Paphos nor her Cnidos, famed
For fish, nor her ore-laden Amathus.
She shunned heaven too: to heaven she preferred
Adonis. Him she clung to, he was her
Constant companion. She who always used
To idle in the shade and take such pains
To enhance her beauty, roamed across the hills,
Through woods and brambly boulders, with her dress
Knee-high like Dian’s, urging on the hounds,
Chasing the quarry when the quarry’s safe—
Does and low-leaping hares and antlered deer—
But keeping well away from brigand wolves
And battling boars and bears well-armed with claws
And lions soaked in slaughter of the herds.
She warned Adonis too, if warnings could
Have been of any use, to fear those beasts.
“Be brave when backs are turned, but when they’re bold,
Boldness is dangerous. Never be rash,
My darling, to my risk; never provoke
Quarry that nature’s armed, lest your renown
Should cost me dear. Not youth, not beauty, nor
Charms that move Venus’ heart can ever move
Lions or bristly boars or eyes or minds
Of savage beasts. In his curved tusks a boar
Wields lightning; tawny lions launch their charge
In giant anger. Creatures of that kind
I hate.” And when Adonis asked her why,
‘I’ll tell”, she said, “a tale to astonish you
Of ancient guilt and magic long ago.
But my unwonted toil has made me tired
And, look, a poplar, happily at hand,
Drops shade for our delight, and greensward gives
A couch. Here I would wish to rest with you”
(She rested) “on the ground”, and on the grass
And him she lay, her head upon his breast,
And mingling kisses with her words began.
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