Ah! well-a-day! ah! well-a-day!

My plighted vows I’ll duly pay,

Ye gods, if ye will save

From the foe, and from the grave

My trembling life set free!

Surges high, surges high, sorrow’s many-billowed sea,

And woe towers on woe. Ah me!

Ye Apian hills,[n10] be kind to me,

And throw not back the stranger’s note

But know the Libyan wail!