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C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Pan

By Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle (1818–1894)

From ‘Poémes Antiques’: Translation of Thomas Walsh

ROISTERING Pan, the Arcadian shepherd’s god,

Crested like ram and like the wild goat shod,

Makes soft complaint upon his oaten horn.

When hill and valley turn to gold with morn,

He wanders joying with the dancing band

Of nymphs across the moss and flowering land.

The lynx-skin clothes his back; his brows are crowned

With hyacinth and crocus interwound,

And with his glee the echoes long rejoice.

The barefoot nymphs assemble at the voice,

And lightly by the crystal fountain’s side,

Surrounding Pan in rhythmic circles glide.

In vine-bound grottoes, in remote retreats,

At noon the god sleeps out the parching heats

Beside some hidden brook, below the domes

Of swaying oaks, where sunlight never comes.

But when the night, with starry girdle bound,

Wafts her long veils across the blue profound,

Pan, passion-flushed, tracks through the shadowy glade

In swift pursuit the nimble-footed maid;

Clasps her in flight, and with exulting cries

Through the white moonlight carries off his prize.