Specimens of Translation from Medea

Tell me, ye bards, whose skill sublime
First charmed the ear of youthful Time,
With numbers wrapt in heavenly fire.
Who bade delighted echo swell

The trembling transports of the lyre,
The murmur of the shell —
Why to the burst of Joy alone
Accords sweet Music’s soothing tone?

Why can no bard with magic strain
In slumbers steep the heart of pain?
While varied tones obey your sweep,
The mild, the plaintive, and the deep.

Bends not despairing Grief to hear
Your golden lute with ravished ear?
Has all your art no power to bind
The fiercer pangs that shake the mind,

And lull the wrath at whose command
Murder bares her gory hand?
When, flushed with joy, the rosy throng
Weave the light dance, ye swell the song:

Cease, ye vain warblers! cease to charm
The breast with other raptures warm!
Cease! till your hand with magic strain
In slumbers steep the heart in pain!