To consecrate, on Nile, paternal shades,

And bear to regions of Egyptian earth,

The heap of ashes whence derived new birth;

To foreign clime he flies on rapid wing,

Intent, remains in grassy tomb, to bring.

Innumerable birds, his flight, attend:

Battalions thick, through air, their pinions bend,

The feathered cohorts, closed on ev’ry side,

His varying course along the welkin hide.

Nor one among the multitude around,

To cross the path audaciously is found;

But, to the fragrant monarch, all give way,

And highest adoration freely pay.

The hawk and THUND’RER’s bird, fierce war, neglect;—

Pacifick compact, springing from respect.

THE Parthian king thus leads BARBARIAN ranks,

From undulating Tigris’ yellow banks;

Proud of rich dress and gems around him spread,

He, royal garlands, places on his head;—

Reins formed of gold, his noble courser, guide:—

Robe, from Assyrian needle, purple dyed;

’Mid troops that servilely, commands, obey,

Himself he shows elated with his sway.

IN Egypt’s clime a famous city1 lies,

Which, sacrifices, for the SUN, supplies;

The Phenix thither, to the temple goes:

The dome, a hundred Theban columns, shows;

There he deposits relicks of his sire;—

Adores the god;—his burden, gives the fire;

And, of himself, the germ and last remains,

He consecrates where holy fervour reigns.

From myrrh, through all the limits, lustre flies.

And fumes divine upon the altars rise;

The Indian odours reach Pelusium’s2 fen,

The nostrils, titillate:—yield health to men;

And vapours, by the richest perfumes, fed,

O’er Nile I sev’n mouths, more sweet than Nectar, spread.

O HAPPY bird! that from thyself canst spring;

Death’s blows, to all besides, destruction bring;

And while to others lengthened life’s denied,

With strength and vigour new art thou supplied.

On thee through ashes is fresh birth conferred:

Age dies,—but thou immortal art averred.

Whatever was has passed before thy sight:

The witness of revolving periods’ flight;—

O’er lofty rocks the swelling waters hurled;—

The year that Phaeton inflamed the world.

No slaughters ever thee deprive of breath;—

Escaped:—EARTH vanquished vainly asks thy death;

Thy thread of life the Parcae ne’er divide:

No pow’rs of hurting thee, with them reside.

1 Heliopolis.

2 At the farthest part of the Nile.

THE TWICE-BORN GOD

Dionysiaca, Book VII

Nonnos

Translated by W. H. D. Rouse, 1940