Claudian
Translated by A. Hawkins, 1817
Claudian (c. AD 370–c. 404) was probably born in Alexandria in Egypt, but travelled to Italy, where he became court poet to the emperor Honorius, who ruled from 393 to 423 and whose reign witnessed the sack of Rome by the Visigoths. Claudian also wrote in praise of Honorius’ regent, a Roman general named Stilicho. This story takes Claudian back to his Egyptian roots.
In Orient realms, beyond where Indus flows,
A wood, with Ocean round, in verdure grows,
The panting coursers of the god of day
First touch the foliage in their rapid way,
When humid gates with dewy chariot quake,—
The whistling whips, the lofty branches, shake,—
The rising ray discloses glances red,—
The glitt’ring wheels, resplendent brightness, spread,—
And NIGHT, far off, turns pale, constrained by light,
Her sable robe draws in, and takes to flight.
THE solar bird, within this happy clime,
Resides, protected by the FLAME SUBLIME,
Possesses tracts, frail animals ne’er trace,
And feels no suff’rings of the human race;
Immortal as the pow’rs, that dwell on high:
Eternal like the stars of azure sky;
The constant waste, which rolling ages view,
Replenished is with limbs that rise anew.
To satiate hunger or his thirst assuage,
No food nor liquids e’er, his sight, engage;
Him nourishment, the SUN’s pure heat procures:
From vapours Tethys, fluids thin, assures.
His eyes are ever darting secret rays:
Encircling beams of flame, his beak displays.
A tuft arises o’er his lofty crown:
Thence lustre shines, that rivals SOL’s renown,
And pierces darkness with impressive force;—
His legs in purple, decked from Tyrian source;—
Wings, swifter than the winds, blue tints, unfold;—
And, o’er his back, the plumes adorned with gold.
To no conception he existence owes,
The father and the son at once he shows,
Alternately resuming youthful breath,
As oft as passing through the scene of death.
For when a thousand years has Summer run,—
As often Winter equal course begun,—
And Spring, the husbandman, brought shady store,
Which Autumn from the spreading branches tore,—
The Phenix then, oppressed by weight of years,
To sink at length beneath the load, appears.
SO, overpow’red by storms, the lofty pine
Inclines his top on Caucasus’ high chine;
A part, to winds’ incessant shock, gives way:
The rest to beating rains and time’s decay.
DIMINISHED now is seen this lustre bright;—
Old age’s languid chill pervades his sight.
Thus Cynthia, when the clouds obscure her face,
No longer shows, of dubious horns, the trace.
His wings, accustomed, ether, to explore,
Above the humid ground can scarcely soar.
Then, conscious that his age is near the end,
He preparation makes new life to lend,
Selects the dryest plants from temp’rate hills,
With fragrant leaves the pile Sabaean, fills,
A tomb composes for himself on earth,
Where, breath resigned, he takes his future birth.
Here sits the bird and, now more feeble grown,
Salutes the beaming Sun in flatt’ring tone,
Prayer mixes with the plaintive song he sings,
Desiring flame, that back, fresh vigour, brings.
When Phoebus sees him, as his chariot rolls,
He stops, and thus, the fav’rite bird, consoles:
“O PHENIX! ready on the pile of death,
“At once to render up thy aged breath,
“And, thus prepared at length to meet thy doom,
“Gain natal changes from fallacious tomb,
“Who, from destruction, art produced again,
“And, through departed life, dost bloom obtain;—
“Resume beginning:—worn out frame, forsake;—
“And, by mutation, form more active, take.”
THIS said, with moving head gold beams he darts,
And, vital splendour to the bird, imparts.
The Phenix willingly receives the fire:
Joy feels to die, and then anew respire;
The heap of perfumes burns with solar rays,
And ancient features perish ’mid the blaze.
Th’ astonished MOON restrains her bullocks’ course;
The HEAV’NS, dull wheels, no longer forward force;
All NATURE in solicitude appears;—
Lest lost th’ eternal bird, disclosing fears;—
Fans faithful flames that freely they may burn;—
Th’ immortal glory of the world, return.
AT length the scattered frame new vigour shows;
Through ev’ry vein, the blood repassing flows;
The ashes of themselves begin to move;
And, full of plumes, the shapeless embers prove.
Just what the father was, forth comes the son,
And now, of life, a fresh career’s begun.
Fire interposed, with momentary space,
Divides the line where doubly life we trace.
AN anxious wish at once his breast pervades,
To consecrate, on Nile, paternal shades,
And bear to regions of Egyptian earth,
The heap of ashes whence derived new birth;
To foreign clime he flies on rapid wing,
Intent, remains in grassy tomb, to bring.
Innumerable birds, his flight, attend:
Battalions thick, through air, their pinions bend,
The feathered cohorts, closed on ev’ry side,
His varying course along the welkin hide.
Nor one among the multitude around,
To cross the path audaciously is found;
But, to the fragrant monarch, all give way,
And highest adoration freely pay.
The hawk and THUND’RER’s bird, fierce war, neglect;—
Pacifick compact, springing from respect.
THE Parthian king thus leads BARBARIAN ranks,
From undulating Tigris’ yellow banks;
Proud of rich dress and gems around him spread,
He, royal garlands, places on his head;—
Reins formed of gold, his noble courser, guide:—
Robe, from Assyrian needle, purple dyed;
’Mid troops that servilely, commands, obey,
Himself he shows elated with his sway.
IN Egypt’s clime a famous city1 lies,
Which, sacrifices, for the SUN, supplies;
The Phenix thither, to the temple goes:
The dome, a hundred Theban columns, shows;
There he deposits relicks of his sire;—
Adores the god;—his burden, gives the fire;
And, of himself, the germ and last remains,
He consecrates where holy fervour reigns.
From myrrh, through all the limits, lustre flies.
And fumes divine upon the altars rise;
The Indian odours reach Pelusium’s2 fen,
The nostrils, titillate:—yield health to men;
And vapours, by the richest perfumes, fed,
O’er Nile I sev’n mouths, more sweet than Nectar, spread.
O HAPPY bird! that from thyself canst spring;
Death’s blows, to all besides, destruction bring;
And while to others lengthened life’s denied,
With strength and vigour new art thou supplied.
On thee through ashes is fresh birth conferred:
Age dies,—but thou immortal art averred.
Whatever was has passed before thy sight:
The witness of revolving periods’ flight;—
O’er lofty rocks the swelling waters hurled;—
The year that Phaeton inflamed the world.
No slaughters ever thee deprive of breath;—
Escaped:—EARTH vanquished vainly asks thy death;
Thy thread of life the Parcae ne’er divide:
No pow’rs of hurting thee, with them reside.
1 Heliopolis.
2 At the farthest part of the Nile.