Odes Of Anacreon - Ode XV.

[1]     Tell me, why, my sweetest dove,     Thus your humid pinions move,     Shedding through the air in showers     Essence of the balmiest flowers?     Tell me whither, whence you rove,     Tell me all, my sweetest dove.     Curious stranger, I belong     To the bard of Teian song;     With his mandate now I fly     To the nymph of azure eye;--     She, whose eye has maddened many,     But the poet more than any,     Venus, for a hymn of love,     Warbled in her votive grove,[2]     ('Twas, in sooth a gentle lay,)     Gave me to the bard away.     See me now his faithful minion,--     Thus with softly-gliding pinion,     To his lovely girl I bear     Songs of passion through the air.     Oft he blandly whispers me,     "Soon, my bird, I'll set you free."     But in vain he'll bid me fly,     I shall serve him till I die.     Never could my plumes sustain     Ruffling winds and chilling rain,     O'er the plains, or in the dell,     On the mountain's savage swell,     Seeking in the desert wood     Gloomy shelter, rustic food.     Now I lead a life of ease,     Far from rugged haunts like these.     From Anacreon's hand I eat     Food delicious, viands sweet;     Flutter o'er his goblet's brim,     Sip the foamy wine with him.     Then, when I have wantoned round     To his lyre's beguiling sound;     Or with gently moving-wings     Fanned the minstrel while he sings;     On his harp I sink in slumbers,     Dreaming still of dulcet numbers!     This is all--away--away--     You have made me waste the day.     How I've chattered! prating crow     Never yet did chatter so.