And yet, but such as he was wont to do,
At first indeed that work divine he deemed,
And as the white chips from the chisel flew
Of other matters languidly he dreamed,
For easy to his hand that labor seemed,
And he was stirred with many a troubling thought,
And many a doubt perplexed him as he wrought.
And yet, again, at last there came a day
When smoother and more shapely grew the stone,
And he, grown eager, put all thought away
But that which touched his craftsmanship alone;
And he would gaze at what his hands had done,
Until his heart with boundless joy would swell
That all was wrought so wonderfully well.
Yet long it was ere he was satisfied,
And with his pride that by his mastery
This thing was done, whose equal far and wide
In no town of the world a man could see,
Came burning longing that the work should be
E'en better still, and to his heart there came
A strange and strong desire he could not name.
The night seemed long, and long the twilight seemed,
A vain thing seemed his flowery garden fair;
Though through the night still of his work he dreamed,
And though his smooth-stemmed trees so nigh it were
That thence he could behold the marble hair,
Naught was enough, until with steel in hand
He came before the wondrous stone to stand.
No song could charm him, and no histories
Of men's misdoings could avail him now—
Nay, scarcely seaward had he turned his eyes
If men had said, "The fierce Tyrrhenians row
Up through the bay; rise up and strike a blow
For life and goods"; for naught to him seemed dear
But to his well-loved work to be anear.
Then vexed he grew, and, knowing not his heart,
Unto himself he said, "Ah, what is this
That I who oft was happy to depart
And wander where the boughs each other kiss
'Neath the west wind, now have no other bliss
But in vain smoothing of this marble maid,
Whose chips this month a drachma had outweighed?
"Lo! I will get me to the woods and try
If I my woodcraft have forgotten quite,
And then, returning, lay this folly by,
And eat my fill, and sleep my sleep anight,
And 'gin to carve a Hercules aright
Upon the morrow, and perchance indeed
The Theban will be good to me at need."
With that he took his quiver and his bow,
And through the gates of Amathus he went,
And towards the mountain slopes began to go,
Within the woods to work out his intent.
Fair was the day, the honied bean-field's scent
The west wind bore unto him; o'er the way
The glittering, noisy poplar leaves did play.
All things were moving; as his hurried feet
Passed by, within the flowery swath he heard
The sweeping of the scythe, the swallow fleet
Rose over him, the sitting partridge stirred
On the field's edge; the brown bee by him whirred,
Or murmured in the clover flowers below;
But he with bowed-down head failed not to go.
At last he stopped, and, looking round, he said,
"Like one whose thirtieth year is well gone by,
The day is getting ready to be dead;
No rest, and on the border of the sky
Already the great banks of dark haze lie;
No rest—what do I midst this stir and noise?—
What part have I in these unthinking joys?"