120 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



And brazen drops, suspended from the ear, 



Beamed on the hollow temples of the deer. 



His timorous nature cast aside, he ran 



Oft, fond and fearless, to the haunts of man ; 



And proffered oft, with not a doubt to check, 



E'en to a stranger's patting hand, his neck. 



Beloved of all, he roamed : but whose soft care, 



Fond Cyparissus, could with thine compare? 



Loveliest of Cea's sons, 'twas thine to lead 



The stag, light-bounding, to some greener mead, 



Or clearer spring ; delighted, to adorn 



With wreaths of blooming flowers each polished horn ; 



Or mount his back, and guide, with purple rein 



Now here, now there, thy playmate o'er the plain. 



It chanced that Sol in Cancer's hot embrace, 

 Blazed in meridian fervor o'er the place : 

 Down lay the stag beneath a cooling shade, 

 Supine and panting on the grassy glade. 

 Thither young Cyparissus strays ; his spear 

 Is hurled, it flies, it strikes the unknown deer ; 

 But when he views his darling weltering there, 

 How longs the boy the death he dealt to share 

 The radiant god thus strives to yield relief : 



( The loss is trivial, trivial be the grief; 

 For what thou hast done thy tears have well atoned ; 

 Then groan no more :' yet still the stripling groaned ; 

 And prayed of Heaven, his last request, to doom 

 His life to waste in everlasting gloom. 

 When, lost in tears, the blood his veins forsakes ; 

 His every limb a grassy hue partakes ; 

 His flowing tresses, stiff and bushy grown, 

 Point to the stars, and taper to a cone. 

 Now Phoebus thus : ' Ah ! youth, beloved in vain, 

 Long shall thy boughs the gloom I feel retain : 

 Henceforth, when mourners grieve, their grief to share, 

 Emblem of woe, the cypress shall be thtr<j." ' 



Dr, ORGER'S Translation 



