Invoking Hades

 From "Orpheus; Liber Tertius vel Laboris" 
"Collected Works iii" p. 188ff

Str. 1

Now is the gold gone of the year, and gone
    The glory of the world, and gathered close
    The silver of the frost. Far splendid snows
Shine where the bright anemone once shone.  
    Ay! for the laughter live  
    Of youths and maids that strive  
In amorous play, the ancient saws of eld_a  
    And wisdom mystical  
    From bearded lips must fall,  
Old eyes behold what young eyes ne'er beheld:  
Namely, the things beyond the triple veil  
    Of space and time and cause, eternal woof_b  
    Of misery overproof:  
And aged thoughts assail_c  
    The younger hopes, and passion stands aloof,  
And silence takes possession, and the tale  
    Of earth is told and done.  
Then from the Sire of all the Gods, from War  
    And Love and Wisdom and the eternal Sun  
Worship is torn afar:  
    While unto Thee, O Hades, turn we now,  
    Awful of breast and brow,  
And hear thee in the sea, behold thee in the Star.

Ant. 1 (Echo of the Damned)

Ay! is the earth and upper ether gone,  
    And all the joy of earth, and gathered close  
    The darkness and the death-wind and the snows  
On us on whom the sun of air once shone?_a  
    What souls are left alive  
    Vainly lament and strive,  
For they shall join the dead of utmost eld;  
    The concourse mystical  
    Who see the seasons fall  
Shall soon behold what all we have beheld: -  
The accursed stream, the intolerable veil  
    Of night and death and hell, disastrous woof  
    Of anguish overproof  
That fruitless wills assail  
    Ever in vain: good fortune stands aloof  
And all kind gods: we, taking up the tale  
    Of dead men past and done,  
Declare that ceaseless is the eternal war,  
    And victory steadfast set against the Sun.  
Yet we perceive afar  
    Even in Hades, at the end, not now,  
    Some light upon his brow,  
Some comfort in the sea, some refuge in the Star.

Str. 2  

O thou! because thy chariot is golden,  
    And beautiful thy coursers_b, and their manes  
        Flecked with such foam as once upon the sea  
Bore Aphrodite_c, and thy face is olden,  
    Worn with dim thought and unsuspected pains,  
        And all thy soul fulfilled of majesty;  
Because the silence of thy house is great,  
And thy word second spoken after Fate,  
And thy light stricken of thy own grim hand;  
Because thy whisper exceedeth the command  
Of Zeus; thy dim light far outshines his glory;  
    Because; as He the first is, Thou the last: -  
        Therefore I take up sorrow in my hands,  
And ply_a thine ear with my most doleful_b story,  
    Asking a future, who have lost a past:  
        A guerdon_c of my singing like the land's  
When spring breaks forth from winter, and the blood  
Of the old earth laughs in every new-born bud.

Ant. 2 (Echo of the Damned)  

O thou! because thy lyre is keen and golden  
    And beautiful thy numbers through our veins  
        Pouring delight as on the starry sea  
Burn gems of rapture; though the houses olden  
    Relax awhile their unredeeming pains,  
        And through dead slaves thrill bounteous majesty?  
Though the strong music of thy soul be great: -  
Shall thy desire avail to alter Fate?  
Or impious hands unloose the awful hand?  
Or futile words reverse the great command?  
Or what availeth? Though great Hades's_d glory  
    Stoop to thy prayer, and answer thee at last,  
        Should Clotho_e catch the thread in weaving hands,  
Respin what Athropos_f once cut - that story  
    Were vain for thee - that which is past is past,  
        Nor can Omnipotence avail the land's  
Death-Spring's is alien though ancestral blood,  
And a new birth is current in the bud.

Str. 3

Think, then, the deed impossible is done  
    Since Theseus_a fared forth to the ambient_b air! 
His thread once cut - was that indeed respun  
    Or patched by witchery? a deceit? a snare?
I tell ye; past and future are but one,  
    And present - nothing; shall not Hades dare 
 His own omnipotence against the sun,  
    and let no tittle_c of his glory share  
With all the earth's recuperating wheel,  
And every dawn's sure falchion-flash_d of steel?

Ant. 4 (Echo of the Damned)

Indeed, a deed impossible was done  
    Were the new Theseus heavier than the air.  
Nay! but a new thread phantom-frail was spun  
    And men's blind eyes discovered not the snare,  
Else were that elder cord and this yet one,  
    Cut but in fancy. Yet, shall mortal dare  
To fling a wanton word against the Sun,  
    And stand forth candidate for lot and share  
Where hangs Prometheus,_e rolls Ixion's_f wheel,  
And the stone rolls upon the limbs of steel?

Epode_a

 These echoes in my mind foul tortures,
    Present my fears, and image my distrust.  
No answer comes, no voice the silence stirs
    With joyful "may" or melancholy "must."
Nor, though the gloom requicken, may I see  
    Hades enthroned, my prayers who heedeth nought,
Nor glowing tear of bowed Persephone  
    Drooped earthward for the ninefold misery wrought.  
In utter sorrow ever bound she stays,  
    Hears not my song, nor heedeth anything,
Whose mind lamenting turns to ancient days  
    And Nysian_b meadows and the hour of spring.  
Yea, but perchance to touch that secret chord  
    Were to awake that sorrow into life;  
Sting, as a wound a deep-envenomed sword,
    The inmost soul of the Aidonian wife:_c  
Listen! I tune my music to that hour;  
    The careless maidens and the virgin laughter,  
The bloom of springtide and the fatal flower,  
    And all that joy the sorrow echoing after.  
So that, dread Hades, thou mayest hear and yield,  
    Thyself unmastered and inexorable_a  
The gentle maid as crying in that field,  
    Now thy soul's keeper on the throne of Hell!  
Hail, Hades! Thou who hearest not my song,  
    Repealest not the heaven's unjust decree,  
Revengest not for me the woe and wrong,  
    Shalt glean_b my sorrow from Persephone.  
Hail, Hades! In the gloom the echoing cry  
    Swells, and the chorus darkens as I sing,  
And all the fibres of Eternity  
    Shake as I loose the loud indignant string.  
Hail, Hades! hear thy wrong proclaimed aloud,  
    And thou the wronger safe because too great.  
To like offence harden thy neck, and proud  
    Blow thou the dismal_c challenge unto Fate!

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    a eld: ancient times, old times.

     b woof: woven into something - the woof-threads goes horizontically between the warps (wefts) thus making of weaving.

     c assail: attack.

     a The original has a punctuation mark, not a question mark here.

     b coursers: horses, or other beasts of transport.

     c Referring to the myth of Aphrodite born of the foaming sea.

     a ply: here meaning: "to bombard," "to storm," "to employ with diligence," "to press".

     b doleful: "sad,"  the story of Orpheus up against the dead of his beloved, of course.

     c guerdon: a reward.

     d The original has "Hades'."

     e Clotho: one of the three Erinyes, the spinster. They will reappear in the next poem.

     f Athropos: another of the three Erinyes, the one who cuts the thread. Will also reappear beneath.

     a Theseus: yet one of the great heroes of Greek legend. The patron of Athens, centre of a host of stories, among which our Poet here alludes to his adventure in the labyrinth of King Minos, where he, helped by Ariadne, found his way rolling a ball of thread. Like many a hero he had to leave her, now his wife, later on, she then married Bacchus.

     b ambient: surrounding.

     c title: a small and minor part of a whole.

     d falchion: a short, broad, rounded sword.

     e Prometheus: Another great Greek hero, the one who ridiculed the gods, being smarter and more cunning than they. Stole the fire and gave it to his fellow men, along with all knowledge and know-how. At last Hermes, on the orders of Zeus, had him chained to a rock where a vulture daily fed on his liver. Another hero, the greatest of them all, Heracles (or Hercules) freed him, and he then joined the gods.

     f Ixion: One of the greatest sinners of Greek mythology. Called the first human murderer, tried to seduce Hera, wife of Zeus, and became father of the centaurs by a cloud looking like Hera. Zeus had Hermes chain him to a wheel in Hades whipped with serpents. Along with Sisyphus, Tantalus, and the Danaides the most severely punished in the Greek underworld.

     a Epode: the ending verses in Greek lyrics, especially (like here) the choral kind of poem sung between a person and a choir. Per Olsen wrote (in Danish) on the Greek Drama here

     b Nysian: The Mount Nysa (maybe in Thrace), where Bacchus (Dionysus) grew up reared by nymphs.

     c the Aidonian wife: Aidos: the Greek personification of reverence, Orpheus refers to his dead Eurodice as a perfect, reverent wife.

     a inexorable: who will not listen to pleas and change his mind.

     b glean: gather, one gleans (gathers) the rest of the hay after the normal harvest has gathered the seeds.

     c dismal: "sad," "sombre."

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