Foolish boy! Why tremblest thou?
Thou lovest it, then, my wine?
Wouldst more of it? See how glows,
Through the delicate, flushed marble,
The red creaming liquor,
Strewn with dark seeds!
Drink, then! I chide thee not,
Deny thee not my bowl.
Come, stretch forth thy hand, then—so!
Drink—drink again!
THE YOUTH.
Thanks, gracious one!
Ah, the sweet fumes again!
More soft, ah me!
More subtle-winding,
Than Pan’s flute-music!
Faint—faint! Ah me,
Again the sweet sleep!
CIRCE.
Hist! Thou—within there!
Come forth, Ulysses!
Art tired with hunting?
While we range the woodland,
See what the day brings.
ULYSSES.
Ever new magic!
Hast thou then lured hither,
Wonderful goddess, by thy art,
The young, languid-eyed Ampelus,
Iacchus’ darling,
Or some youth beloved of Pan,
Of Pan and the nymphs;
That he sits, bending downward
His white, delicate neck
To the ivy-wreathed marge
Of thy cup; the bright, glancing vine-leaves
That crown his hair,
Falling forward, mingling
With the dark ivy-plants;
His fawn-skin, half untied,
Smeared with red wine-stains? Who is he,
That he sits, overweighed
By fumes of wine and sleep,
So late, in thy portico?
What youth, goddess,—what guest
Of gods or mortals?
CIRCE.
Hist! he wakes!
I lured him not hither, Ulysses.
Nay, ask him!
THE YOUTH.