University of Virginia Library


40

TRANSLATION.

[The sea! unfathom'd in it depth, unbounded in its flow]

I

The sea! unfathom'd in it depth, unbounded in its flow;
The sea! whereon the brave of heart may wander to and fro;
The sea! within whose mighty arms the earth a captive lies,
Whose depth is intermingled with the depth of distant skies.

II

The sea! how calm and smiling when with azure hue it gleams;
The sea! how like a cradled child in playfulness it seems;
The sea! which was my birth-place when the tempest shook its wave;
The sea! within whose bosom I await a sailor's grave.

III

O sea! be mine no burial-place beyond thy rolling surge;—
When the seamew, wildly screaming, shall have sung my funeral dirge,

41

The billow, as a winding sheet enwrapp'd me, never more'
Cast back my limbs to lie and rot upon the hated shore.

IV

It would pain and break my slumber were I laid below the sward;
O'er the ashes of thy lover keeping fond and jealous ward,
Yield not thy charge till summon'd by the trumpet loud and dread,
Restore them not till doomsday shall awake and claim the dead.