Читать книгу The Greatest German Classics (Vol. 1-14) - Various - Страница 262

IPHIGENIA (alone)

These words at an unseasonable hour

Produce a strong revulsion in my breast;

I am alarm'd!—For as the rushing tide

In rapid currents eddies o'er the rocks

Which lie among the sand upon the shore;

E'en so a stream of joy o'erwhelm'd my soul.

I grasp'd what had appear'd impossible.

It was as though another gentle cloud

Around me lay, to raise me from the earth,

And rock my spirit in the same sweet sleep

Which the kind goddess shed around my brow,

What time her circling arm from danger snatched me.

My brother forcibly engross'd my heart;

I listen'd only to his friend's advice;

My soul rush'd eagerly to rescue them,

And as the mariner with joy surveys

The less'ning breakers of a desert isle,

So Tauris lay behind me. But the voice

Of faithful Arkas wakes me from my dream,

Reminding me that those whom I forsake

Are also men. Deceit doth now become

Doubly detested. O my soul, be still!

Beginn'st thou now to tremble and to doubt?

Thy lonely shelter on the firm-set earth

Must thou abandon? and, embark'd once more,

At random drift upon tumultuous waves,

A stranger to thyself and to the world?