Ode to Eurydice
๐ ๐๐จ๐๐ฆ โ โAwake, dear heart, awake. Thou hast slept well. Awake.โ โ William Shakespeare
I
In the eternal oldness of a land dwelt Eurydice
With whose gaze she gathered all the living;
Like the flow of the wind, in any given release
She was invoked by the gods through a dream.
O! She did not wish to leave her noiseless stream,
Yet she betrayed her vivid heart with her grace
And she bade farewell to her beloved green place.
II
How sad, not to listen to the uplifting birdsong,
But so hovered a nymph to the great Olympus.
She merely followed her soul, but not for long;
A human spirit hummed through the leafy trees,
Yet he was silenced when he found a bright breeze.
โWhy is my voice quiet now and what is this I see?
Why are my hands heavy and why am I not free?โ
III
Alas, deeper sin than the sleep Eurydice fell into;
Like a sorrowful lifeblood awaiting her sentence,
For there all is revealed, she declined in dread.
As those in despair, the nymph found solace,
For Orpheus was there and a whisper spread.
โO my cherished, why do you seek me in hell?
I still linger, for I cannot die and so I dwell.โ
IV
So fared it with her dreadful dreams for a while,
When Pan noticed her without her heavenly robes.
O! Faint spirits, who own nothing and gather for exile,
Awoke the lulled nymph by the mellow song of Pan.
โMy dear godโ, she uttered, โwhere is the unknown man
And where are all my memories left so as to be lifeless?
Why do my wounds not age โ so to speak, am I timeless?โ
V
โBehold,โ exclaimed all the nymphs together, โa voice!โ
And so it was, for the human regained his speech.
O! Hateful fate! Then every eye sensed the crime
And the nymphs fled, though Pan chose to preach.
Yet the unseen axe was used to fell an ancient time.
โHear me nowโ, said Eurydice, โI see my way of dying
For I was born with trees and with them I am fading.โ
ยฉ Diana Dolea (2024 All Rights Reserved)
Thanks to Wolf Eberhardt for letting me be part of Icebergโs Poetry. ๐
