Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v5.djvu/399

Rh

Exposed? By what crime's

Penalty dost thou perish? Show, to what part

Of earth I miserable have wandered.

Ah! ah! alas! alas!

Again some fly doth sting me wretched,

Image of earth-born Argus, cover it, earth;

I fear the myriad-eyed herdsman beholding;

For he goes having a treacherous eye,

Whom not e'en dead the earth conceals.

But me, wretched from the Infernals passing,

He pursues, and drives fasting along the seaside

Sand, while low resounds a wax-compacted reed,

Uttering sleep-giving law; alas! alas! O gods!

Where, gods! where lead me far-wandering courses?

In what sin, O son of Kronos,

In what sin ever having taken,

To these afflictions hast thou yoked me? alas! alas!

With fly-driven fear a wretched

Frenzied one dost thus afflict?

With fire burn, or with earth cover, or

To sea monsters give for food, nor

Envy me my prayers, king.

Enough much-wandered wanderings

Have exercised me, nor can I learn where

I shall escape from sufferings. Ch. Hear'st thou the address of the cow-horned virgin?

Pr. And how not hear the fly-whirled virgin,

Daughter of Inachus, who Zeus' heart warmed

With love, and now the courses over long,

By Here hated, forcedly performs?