Page images
PDF
EPUB

VII.

SONG.

Ζώη με, σὰς ἀγαπῶς.

ATHENS, 1810.

1.

MAID of Athens, ere we part,

Give, oh, give me back my heart!

Or, since that has left my breast,

Keep it now,

and take the rest!

Hear my vow before I go,

Ζώη με, σας ἀγαπῶ.

2.

By those tresses unconfined,

Wooed by each Ægean wind;
By those lids whose jetty fringe

Kiss thy soft cheeks' blooming tinge;

By those wild eyes

like the roe,

Ζώη με, σὰς ἀγαπῶ.

3.

By that lip I long to taste;

By that zone-encircled waist;

By all the token-flowers3 that tell

What words can never speak so well;

By Love's alternate joy and woe,

Ζώη με, σας αγαπώ.

4.

Maid of Athens! I am gone:

Think of me, sweet! when alone.

Though I fly to Istambol',

Athens holds my heart and soul:

Can I cease to love thee? No!

Ζώη με, σας αγαπώ.

VIII.

Translation of the famous Greek War Song, Δεύτε παῖδες τῶν 'EXλvwv, written by Riga, who perished in the attempt to revolutionize Greece. The following translation is as literal as the author could make it in verse; it is of the same measure as that of the original. See Appendix to vol. 1.

1.

SONS of the Greeks, arise!

The glorious hour's gone forth,

And, worthy of such ties,

Display who gave us birth.

CHORUS.

Sons of Greeks! let us go

In arms against the foe,

Till their hated blood shall flow

In a river past our feet.

2.

Then manfully despising

The Turkish tyrant's yoke,

Let your country see you rising,

And all her chains are broke.

Brave shades of chiefs and sages,

Behold the coming strife!

Hellénes of past ages,

Oh, start again to life!

At the sound of my trumpet, breaking
Your sleep, oh, join with me!

And the seven-hilled city seeking,

Fight, conquer, till we're free.

Sons of Greeks, &c.

« PreviousContinue »