Читать книгу The Greatest German Classics (Vol. 1-14) - Various - Страница 1283

The much admired and much upbraided, Helena,

From yonder strand I come, where erst we disembark'd,

Still giddy from the roll of ocean's billowy surge,

Which, through Poseidon's favor and through Euros' might,

On lofty crested backs hither hath wafted us,

From Phrygia's open field, to our ancestral bays.

Yonder King Menelaus, glad of his return,

With his brave men of war, rejoices on the beach.

But oh, thou lofty mansion, bid me welcome home,

Thou, near the steep decline, which Tyndareus, my sire,

From Pallas' hill returning, here hath builded up;

Which also was adorned beyond all Sparta's homes,

What time with Clytemnestra, sister-like, I grew,

With Castor, Pollux, too, playing in joyous sport.

Wings of yon brazen portals, you I also hail!

Through you, ye guest-inviting, hospitable gates,

Hath Menelaus once, from many princes chosen,

Shone radiant on my sight, in nuptial sort arrayed.

Expand to me once more, that I the king's behest

May faithfully discharge, as doth the spouse beseem.

Let me within, and all henceforth behind remain,

That, charged with doom, till now darkly hath round me stormed!

For since, by care untroubled, I these sites forsook,

Seeking Cythera's fane, as sacred wont enjoined,

And by the spoiler there was seized, the Phrygian,

Happened have many things, whereof men far and wide

Are fain to tell, but which not fain to hear is he

Of whom the tale, expanding, hath to fable grown.