#undelusive

[violettesiren]

Spring’s messenger we hail, The sweet-voiced nightingale; She sings where ivy weaves Blue berries with dark leaves.

Beside each forest-root The lilies freshly shoot, Narcissi crown the grass, Bees hum, and toil, and pass.

The glades are soft with dew, The chestnuts bud anew, And fishers set their sails To undelusive gales.

The shepherd's pipe is heard, The villages are stirred To shout the wine-god's praise, And jest in rural ways.

Then breaks the piercing note From Philomel's wild throat, Passion's supremest pain That may not hope again.

Zeus sends the gracious Spring, And must her herald sing In kindly-bowered retreat Only of love's defeat ?

Ah, woe is me ! I learn, When light and flowers return, Love's anguish, cark and care ; Its infinite despair

Comes back, and makes me mad, Telling how all is glad : Then swell the throb, the wail, The want, O nightingale!

Sappho (Translated into verse by Michael Field)