Jerusalem Delivered
Page 272
It gilt his casque and armour, and arrayed
In gold the verdant summit of the mount.
He felt the spirit of the grateful air
With its soft breath his brow and bosom fan,
While o’er his head, wrung from Aurora’s hair,
A crystal shower of pearly dewdrops ran.
XVI.
La rugiada del Ciel su le sue spoglie
Cade, che parean cenere al colore,
E sì l’asperge che ‘l pallor ne toglie
124 E induce in esse un lucido candore;
Tal rabbellisce le smarrite foglie
Ai mattutini geli arido fiore;
E tal di vaga gioventù ritorna
128 Lieto il serpente, e di novo or s’adorna.
XVI
The heavenly dew was on his garments spread,
To which compared, his clothes pale ashes seem,
And sprinkled so, that all that paleness fled
And thence, of purest white, bright rays outstream;
So cheered are the flowers late withered
With the sweet comfort of the morning beam,
And so, returned to youth, a serpent old
Adorns herself in new and native gold.
XVI
Upon his surcoat, that seemed ashes gray,
Heaven’s dew fell down and rebaptized the knight,
Washed it, and took its mournful tint away,
And in its place induced a lucid white.
Thus their spoilt foliage withered flowers resume,
Refreshed, recruited, by the matin cold;
Blithe serpents so renew their youthful bloom,
And gleam bedizened in fresh scales of gold.
XVII.
Il bel candor della mutata vesta
Egli medesmo riguardando ammira.
Poscia verso l’antica alta foresta
132 Con sicura baldanza i passi gira.
Era là giunto ove i men forti arresta
Solo il terror che di sua vista spira.
Pur nè spiacente a lui, nè pauroso
136 Il bosco par, ma lietamente ombroso.
XVII
The lovely whiteness of his changed weed,
The Prince perceived well, and long admired;
Toward the forest marched he on with speed,
Resolved, as such adventures great required;
Thither he came whence shrinking back for dread
Of that strange desert’s sight the first retired,
But not to him fearful or loathsome made
That forest was, but sweet with pleasant shade:
XVII
The whiteness of his changed accoutrements
Ev’n he himself with admiration viewed,
And, with bold heart and buoyant confidence,
His course directed towards the antique wood.
He had arrived now where alone the fear
Its sight inspired, the less courageous stayed:
To him not fearful did the wood appear —
No gloom he saw, but only pleasant shade.
XVIII.
Passa più oltre, ed ode un suono intanto
Che dolcissimamente si diffonde.
Vi sente d’un ruscello il roco pianto,
140 E ‘l sospirar dell’aura infra le fronde:
E di musico cigno il flebil canto,
E l’usignol che plora, e gli risponde:
Organi, e cetre, e voci umane in rime.
144 Tanti e sì fatti suoni un suono esprime!
XVIII
Forward he passed, mid in the grove before
He heard a sound that strange, sweet, pleasing was;
There rolled a crystal brook with gentle roar,
There sighed the winds as through the leaves they pass,
There did the nightingale her wrongs deplore,
There sung the swan, and singing died, alas!
There lute, harp, cittern, human voice he heard,
And all these sounds one sound right well declared.
XVIII
Onwards he passed, and caught a sound meanwhile
That round diffused most dulcet melody;
Heard the hoarse murmur of a brawling rill,
And, ‘mid the forest’s leaves, the breezes sigh;
Lyres, organs, human voices, and the wail,
The dying wail, of the melodious swan,
With plaintive answer of the nightingale,
And all these various sounds expressed in one.
XIX.
Il Cavalier (pur come agli altri avviene)
N’attendeva un gran tuon d’alto spavento.
E v’ode poi di Ninfe, e di Sirene,
148 D’aure, d’acque, e d’augei dolce concento.
Onde, maravigliando, il piè ritiene,
E poi sen va tutto sospeso e lento:
E fra via non ritrova altro divieto
152 Che quel d’un fiume trasparente e cheto.
XIX
A dreadful thunder-clap at last he heard,
The aged trees and plants well-nigh that rent;
Yet heard the nymphs and sirens afterward,
Birds, winds, and waters, sing with sweet consent:
Whereat amazed he stayed, and well prepared
For his defence, heedful and slow forth went:
Nor in his way his passage aught withstood,
Except a quiet, still, transparent flood.
XIX
As happened to the rest, the cavalier
Expecting was loud thunder’s fearful tone,
But did descant of nymphs and sirens hear,
Of air, of water, and of birds alone.
Whence blank bewilderment enchained his feet,
Then slowly he advanced, nor on the road
Did other hindrance or obstruction meet,
Save where a tranquil stream before him flowed.
XX.
L’un margo e l’altro del bel fiume adorno
Di vaghezze e d’odori olezza e ride.
Ei tanto stende il suo girevol corno,
156 Che tra ‘l suo giro il gran bosco s’asside:
Nè pur gli fa dolce ghirlanda intorno;
Ma un canaletto suo v’entra, e ‘l divide.
Bagna egli il bosco, e ‘l bosco il fiume adombra,
160 Con bel cambio fra lor d’umore e d’ombra.
XX
On the green banks which that fair stream inbound,
Flowers and odors sweetly smiled and smelled,
Which reaching out his stretched arms around,
All the large desert in his bosom held,
And through the grove one channel passage found;
That in the wood; in that, the forest dwelled:
Trees clad the streams; streams green those trees aye made
And so exchanged their moisture and their shade.
XX
Odours perfumed, and Nature’s choicest charms
Pranked either bank, that sweetly smiled and smelt;
And the stream so far stretched its circling arms,
That the great forest sat within its belt;
And not alone a garland round it made,
But a branch parted, and between it flowed:
So, with fair change of water and of shade,
Wood screened the water, water bathed the wood.
XXI.
Mentre mira il guerriero ove si guade;
Ecco un ponte mirabile appariva:
Un ricco ponte d’or, che larghe strade
164 Su gli archi stabilissimi gli offriva.
Passa il dorato varco: e quel giù cade
Tosto che ‘l piè toccata ha l’altra riva:
E se ne ‘l porta in giù l’acqua repente:
168 L’acqua ch’è, d’un bel rio, fatta un torrente.
XXI
The knight some way sought out the flood to pass,
And as he sought, a wondrous bridge appeared,
A bridge of gold, a huge and weig
hty mass,
On arches great of that rich metal reared;
When through that golden way he entered was,
Down fell the bridge, swelled the stream, and weared
The work away, nor sign left where it stood,
And of a river calm became a flood.
XXI
While the knight looked to find a ford, behold!
Spanning the stream, a wondrous bridge appeared;
A gorgeous bridge of brightly burnished gold,
That formed a road, on massive arches reared.
He crossed the golden passage, which fell down
Soon as his foot had touched the opposite shore,
And the stream, now into a torrent grown,
With it away the crumbling fabric bore.
XXII.
Ei si rivolge, e dilatato il mira
E gonfio assai, quasi per nevi sciolte,
Che in se stesso volubil si raggira
172 Con mille rapidissime rivolte.
Ma pur desio di novitade il tira
A spiar tra le piante antiche e folte;
E in quelle solitudini selvagge
176 Sempre a se nova maraviglia il tragge.
XXII
He turned, amazed to see it troubled so,
Like sudden brooks increased with molten snow,
The billows fierce that tossed to and fro,
The whirlpools sucked down to their bosoms low;
But on he went to search for wonders mo,
Through the thick trees there high and broad which grow,
And in that forest huge and desert wide,
The more he sought, more wonders still he spied.
XXII
He turned, and saw that to a flood profound
Had grown the stream, as if from melted snow,
Which, voluble in itself, whirled round and round,
In thousand eddies, as it dashed below.
Still keen desire of fresh adventure drew —
The eager youth that dense old wood to see,
And in that sylvan waste some wonder new
Excited aye his curiosity.
XXIII.
Dove in passando le vestigia ei posa,
Par ch’ivi scaturisca, o che germoglie.
Là s’apre il giglio, e quì spunta la rosa;
180 Quì sorge un fonte, ivi un ruscel si scioglie.
E sovra, e intorno a lui la selva annosa
Tutte parea ringiovenir le foglie.
S’ammolliscon le scorze, e si rinverde
184 Più lietamente in ogni pianta il verde.
XXIII
Whereso he stepped, it seemed the joyful ground
Renewed the verdure of her flowery weed,
A fountain here, a wellspring there he found;
Here bud the roses, there the lilies spread
The aged wood o’er and about him round
Flourished with blossoms new, new leaves, new seed,
And on the boughs and branches of those treen,
The bark was softened, and renewed the green.
XXIII
Where’er, in passing, did his foot repose,
There flowers sprang up or living crystal gushed;
Here oped the lily, there burst forth the rose;
Here water leaped, there in a river rushed:
And o’er and round him the old wood its bloom
Seemed to renew; the rugged bark was seen
To soften, the whole forest to assume
A look more joyous and a tint more green.
XXIV.
Rugiadosa di manna era ogni fronda,
E distillava dalle scorze il mele.
E di nuovo s’udia quella gioconda
188 Strana armonia di canto, e di querele.
Ma il coro uman ch’a i cigni, all’aura, all’onda
Facea tenor, non sa dove si cele:
Non sa veder chi formi umani accenti,
192 Nè dove siano i musici stromenti.
XXIV
The manna on each leaf did pearled lie,
The honey stilled from the tender rind;
Again he heard that wondrous harmony,
Of songs and sweet complaints of lovers kind,
The human voices sung a triple high,
To which respond the birds, the streams, the wind,
But yet unseen those nymphs, those singers were,
Unseen the lutes, harps, viols which they bear.
XXIV
With manna rorid was each teeming tree,
And odorous honey from its bark distilled;
Again that sweet unearthly harmony
The air with song and lamentation filled.
Nor knew he where was hid the human choir,
That with the air, the swan, and waters blent,
Nor saw the organ or mysterious lyre,
Nor those that made such sweet accompaniment.
XXV.
Mentre riguarda, e fede il pensier nega
A quel che ‘l senso gli offeria per vero;
Vede un mirto in disparte, e là si piega,
196 Ove in gran piazza termina un sentiero.
L’estranio mirto i suoi gran rami spiega,
Più del cipresso e della palma, altero:
E sovra tutti gli arbori frondeggia:
200 Ed ivi par del bosco esser la reggia.
XXV
He looked, he listened, yet his thoughts denied
To think that true which he both heard and see,
A myrtle in an ample plain he spied,
And thither by a beaten path went he:
The myrtle spread her mighty branches wide,
Higher than pine or palm or cypress tree:
And far above all other plants was seen
That forest’s lady and that desert’s queen.
XXV
But while he gazed round, and belief denied
To what his senses offered him as true,
Standing apart, a myrtle he descried,
Where a piazza closed the avenue;
Its towering branches the strange myrtle spread
The haughty palm and cypress far above:
There, raising past all other trees its head,
Appeared to be the palace of the grove.
XXVI.
Fermo il guerrier nella gran piazza, affisa
A maggior novitate allor le ciglia.
Quercia gli appar, che per se stessa incisa
204 Apre feconda il cavo ventre, e figlia:
E n’esce fuor vestita in strana guisa
Ninfa d’età cresciuta; (o maraviglia!)
E vede insieme poi cento altre piante
208 Cento ninfe produr dal sen pregnante.
XXVI
Upon the trees his eyes Rinaldo bent,
And there a marvel great and strange began;
An aged oak beside him cleft and rent,
And from his fertile hollow womb forth ran,
Clad in rare weeds and strange habiliment,
A nymph, for age able to go to man,
An hundred plants beside, even in his sight,
Childed an hundred nymphs, so great, so dight.
XXVI
In the piazza the knight saw, surprised,
Still greater novelties; for in the earth
Appeared an oak, that, of itself incised,
Opened its pregnant bosom, and gave birth.
Whence issued forth, arrayed in wondrous guise,
A lovely nymph, in beauty’s ripest bloom;
At the same time a hundred plants he spies,
Producing each a nymph from out its womb.
XXVII.
Quai le mostra la scena, o quai dipinte
Talvolta rimiriam Dee boscarecce,
Nude le braccia, e l’abito succinte,
212 Con bei coturni, e con disciolte trecce:
Tali in sembianza si vedean le finte
Figlie delle selvatiche cortecce;
Se non che in vec
e d’arco o di faretra,
216 Chi tien leuto, e chi viola, o cetra.
XXVII
Such as on stages play, such as we see
The Dryads painted whom wild Satyrs love,
Whose arms half-naked, locks untrussed be,
With buskins laced on their legs above,
And silken robes tucked short above their knee;
Such seemed the sylvan daughters of this grove,
Save that instead of shafts and boughs of tree,
She bore a lute, a harp, or cittern she.
XXVII
As sylvan goddesses display their charms
Upon the stage, or in some painting fair,
With tucked-up dresses and uncovered arms,
With dainty buskins and dishevelled hair,
The rugged trees’ fictitious daughters so
Appeared Rinaldo’s startled gaze before,
Save that, instead of quiver and of bow,
A viol this, that lute or cittern bore,
XXVIII.
E incominciar costor danze e carole:
E di se stesse una corona ordiro,
E cinsero il guerrier, siccome suole
220 Esser punto rinchiuso entro il suo giro.
Cinser la pianta ancora: e tai parole
Nel dolce canto lor da lui s’udiro:
Ben caro giungi in queste chiostre amene,
224 O della donna nostra amore e spene.
XXVIII
And wantonly they cast them in a ring,
And sung and danced to move his weaker sense,
Rinaldo round about environing,
As centres are with their circumference;
The tree they compassed eke, and gan to sing,
That woods and streams admired their excellence;
“Welcome, dear lord, welcome to this sweet grove,
Welcome our lady’s hope, welcome her love.
XXVIII
They then began to carol and dance round,
And of themselves inwove a garland, whence
They in their cirque the youthful warrior bound,
As point within its own circumference.
They bound the tree, too, and these words of love
Were all he could, amid their descant, glean:
‘Welcome, thrice welcome, to this pleasant grove,
Thou cherished hope and idol of our queen!
XXIX.
Giungi aspettato a dar salute all’egra,
D’amoroso pensiero arsa e ferita.
Questa selva che dianzi era sì negra,