Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.

Song of the Parcæ

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)

WITHIN my ears resounds that ancient song,—

Forgotten was it, and forgotten gladly,—

Song of the Parcæ, which they shuddering sang,

When Tantalus fell from his golden seat.

They suffered with their noble friend; indignant

Their bosom was, and terrible their song.

To me and to my sisters, in our youth,

The nurse would sing it; and I marked it well.

“The Gods be your terror,

Ye children of men!

They hold the dominion

In hands everlasting,

All free to exert it

As listeth their will.

“Let him fear them doubly

Whome’er they’ve exalted!

On crags and on cloud-piles

The couches are planted

Around the gold tables.

“Dissension arises;

Then tumble the feasters,

Reviled and dishonored,

In gulfs of deep midnight;

And look ever vainly

In fetters of darkness

For judgment that’s just.

“But they remain seated

At feasts never failing

Around the gold tables.

They stride at a footstep

From mountain to mountain;

Through jaws of abysses

Steams towards them the breathing

Of suffocate Titans,

Like offerings of incense,

A light-rising vapor.

“They turn—the proud masters—

From whole generations

The eye of their blessing;

Nor will in the children,

The once well-beloved,

Still eloquent features

Of ancestor see.”

So sang the dark sisters;

The old exile heareth

That terrible music

In caverns of darkness,—

Remembereth his children,

And shaketh his head.