Kitap 8
' To give me shelter; or shouldst thou alone
1
Be faithful. And now seek I in what lands
' Right may be found or wrong. My latest prayer
'Receive, 0 deity, if still with me
'Thou bidest, thus. May it be mine again,
Conquered, with hostile Caesar on my track,
'To find a Lesbos where to enter in
'And whence to part, unhindered.'
He placed his spouse: while from the shore arose
Such lamentation, and such hands were raised
In ire against the gods, that thou hadst deemed
All left their kin for exile, and their homes.
And though for Magnus grieving in his fall
Yet for Cornelia chiefly did they mourn
Long since their gentle guest. For her had wept
The Lesbian matrons had she left to join
A victor husband: for she won their love,
By kindly modesty and gracious mien,
Ere yet her lord was conquered, while as yet
Their fortunes stood. Now slowly to the deep
Sank fiery Titan; but not yet to those
He sought (if such there be) was shown his orb,
Though veiled from those he quitted. Magnus' mind,
Anxious with waking cares, sought through the kings
His subjects, and the cities leagued with Rome
In faith, and through the pathless tracts that lie
Beyond the scorching suns of southern climes:
Till trouble of his cares and hateful thought
Of that which might be, made him cast afar
His wavering doubts, and from the captain seek
Some counsel on the heavens; how by the sky
He marked his track upon the deep; what star
Guided the path to Syria, and what points
Found in the Wain would pilot him aright
To shores of Libya. But thus replied
The well-skilled watcher of the silent skies:
'Not by the constellations moving ever
'Across the heavens do we guide our barks;
'For that were perilous; but by that starComp. Book III., 256.
