Above a fisher's tomb

    LXIV

     

    Τῷ γριπεῖ Πελάγωνι πατὴρ ἐπέθηκε Μενίσκος
        κύρτον καὶ κώπαν, μνᾶμα κακοζοΐας·

    ABOVE a fisher's tomb 
    Were set his withy basket and his oar, 
         The tokens of his doom, 
    Of how in life his labour had been sore : 
    A father put them up above his son, 
    Meniscus over luckless Pelagon. 

          Phaon, thou dost consort 
    With the same breezes, and thy sails uncoil 
          At evening in the port 
    For midnight vigil and for perilous toil, 
    And, having set thy willow-plaited snare, 
    Forth on the open waters thou dost fare. 

         For wretched is thy lot, 
    And yet thou dost refuse my love, my fame, 
         Disdainful, heeding not 
    That thou could'st be immortal as my name ; 
    My praises thy memorial would become, 
    When in the songless country I am dumb. 

         Instead, before thy grave 
    Unknown, a stranger may some pity feel, 
         Finding how near the wave 
    Thou sleepest underneath thine oar and weel,
    Poor trophies of hard life : his steps gone by, 
    Beside the sea thou wilt forgotten lie.