Μνάσασθαί τινά φαμι καὶ ὔστερον ἄμμεων·
O FREE me, for I take the leap,
Apollo, from thy snowy steep !
Song did'st thou give me, and there fell
O'er Hellas an enchanter's spell;
I heard young lovers catch the strain :
For me there is the hoary main ;
I would not hear my words again.
Ah, lord of speech, well dost thou know
The incommunicable woe
Finds not in lyric cry release,
Finds but in Hades' bosom peace ;
And therefore on thy temple-ground
Thou pointest lovers to the mound
Set high above the billows' sound.
Though in unfathomed seas I sink,
Men will remember me, I think,
Remember me, my King, as thine ;
And must I take a shape divine
As thine immortal, let me be
A dumb sea-bird with breast love-free,
And feel the waves fall over me.
