The Mind

Translation of the First Strophe of Pindar's Second Olympic

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772–1834

From Complete Poetical Works, ed. E. H. Coleridge (1912)

The Mind

Ye harp-controlling hymns!

Ye hymns the sovereigns of harps!
What God? what Hero?
What Man shall we celebrate?
Truly Pisa indeed is of Jove,
But the Olympiad (or, the Olympic games) did Hercules establish,
The first-fruits of the spoils of war.
But Theron for the four-horsed car
That bore victory to him,
It behoves us now to voice aloud:
The Just, the Hospitable,
The Bulwark of Agrigentum,
Of renowned fathers
The Flower, even him
Who preserves his native city erect and safe.

✦ ✦ ✦

Translated by Coleridge from Pindar. 1815

MLA

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Translation of the First Strophe of Pindar's Second Olympic.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/coleridge/474/.

Chicago

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Translation of the First Strophe of Pindar's Second Olympic.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/coleridge/474/.

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