by
Robert Browning

Introduction

Translation of a lyric in the Hyppolytus of Euripides, and printed by J. P. Mahaffy in his Euripides, 1879. Mr. Mahaffy writes: “Mr. Browning has honored me with the following translation of these stanzas, so that the general reader may not miss the meaning or the spirit of the ode. The English metre, though not a strict reproduction, gives an excellent idea of the original.”

I

Oh Love! Love, thou that from the eyes diffusest
Yearning, and on the soul sweet grace inducest —
Souls against whom thy hostile march is made —
Never to me be manifest in ire,
Nor, out of time and tune, my peace invade!
Since neither from the fire —
No, nor from the stars — is launched a bolt more mighty
Than that of Aphrodité
Hurled from the hands of Love, the boy with Zeus for sire.

II

Idly, how idly, by the Alpheian river
And in the Pythian shrines of Phœbus, quiver
Blood-offerings from the bull, which Hellas heaps:
While Love we worship not — the Lord of men!
Worship not him, the very key who keeps
Of Aphrodité, when
She closes up her dearest chamber-portals:
— Love, when he comes to mortals,
Wide-wasting, through those deeps of woes beyond the deep!