The Vigil of Venus
I
Tomorrow let loveless, let lover tomorrow make love:
O spring, singing spring, spring of the world renew!
In spring lovers consent and the birds marry
When the grove receives in her hair the nuptial dew.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
II
Tomorrow’s the day when the prime Zeus made love:
Out of lightning foam shot deep in the heaving sea
(Witnessed by green crowds of finny horses)
Dione rising and falling, he made to be!
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
III
Tomorrow the Joiner of love in the gracious shade
Twines her green huts with boughs of myrtle claws,
Tomorrow leads her gangs to the singing woods:
Tomorrow Dione, on high, lays down the laws.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
IV
She shines the tarnished year with glowing buds
That, wakening, head up to the western wind
In eager clusters. Goddess! You deign to scatter
Lucent night-drip of dew; for you are kind.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
V
The heavy teardrops stretch, ready to fall,
Then falls each glistening bead to the earth beneath:
The moisture that the serene stars sent down
Loosens the virgin bud from the sliding sheath.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
VI
Look, the high crimsons have revealed their shame.
The burning rose turns in her secret bed,
The goddess has bidden the girdle to loose its folds
That the rose at dawn may give her maidenhead.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
VII
The blood of Venus enters her blood, Love’s kiss
Has made the drowsy virgin modestly bold;
Tomorrow the bride is not ashamed to take
The burning taper from its hidden fold.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
VIII
The goddess herself has sent nymphs to the woods,
The Boy with girls to the myrtles; perhaps you think
That Love’s not truly tame if he shows his arrows?
Go, girls! Unarmed, Love beckons. You must not shrink.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
IX
Bidden unarmed to go and to go naked
Lest he destroy with bow, with dart, with brand–
Yet, girls, Cupid is pretty, and you must know
That Love unarmed can pierce with naked hand!
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
X
Here will be girls of the farm and girls of the mountain
And girls who live by forest, or grove, or spring.
The mother of the Flying Boy has smiled
And said: Now, girls, beware his naked sting!
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
XI
Gently she asks may she bend virginity?
Gently that you, a modest girl, may yield.
Now, should you come, for three nights you would see
Delirious bands in every grove and field.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
XII
Venus herself has maidens as pure as you;
So, Delia, one thing only we ask: Go away!
That the wood shall not be bloody with slaughtered beasts
When Venus flicks the shadows with greening spray.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
XIII
Among the garlands, among the myrtle bowers
Ceres and Bacchus, and the god of verse, delay.
Nightlong the watch must be kept with votive cry
Dione’s queen of the woods: Diana, make way!
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
XIV
She places her court among the flowers of Hybla;
Presiding, she speaks her laws; the Graces are near.
Hybla, give all your blossoms, and bring, Hybla,
The brightest plain of Enna for the whole year.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
XV
With spring the father-sky remakes the world:
The male shower has flowed into the bride,
Earth’s body; then shifted through sky and sea and land
To touch the quickening child in her deep side.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
XVI
Over sky and land and down under the sea
On the path of the seed the goddess brought to earth
And dropped into our veins created fire,
That men might know the mysteries of birth.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
XVII
Body and mind the inventive Creatress fills
With spirit blowing its invariable power:
The Sabine girls she gave to the sons of Rome
And sowed the seed exiled from the Trojan tower.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
XVIII
Lavinia of Laurentum she chose to bed
Her son Aeneas, and for the black Mars won
The virgin Silvia, to found the Roman line:
Sire Romulus, and Caesar her grandson.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
XIX
Venus knows country matters: country knows Venus:
For Love, Dione’s boy, was born on the farm.
From the rich furrow she snatched him to her breast,
With tender flowers taught him peculiar charm.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
XX
See how the bullocks rub their flanks with broom!
See the ram pursue through the shade the bleating ewe,
For lovers’ union is Venus in kind pursuit;
And she tells the birds to forget their winter woe.
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make love.
XXI
Now the tall swans with hoarse cries thrash the lake:
The girl of Tereus pours from the poplar ring
Musical change sad sister who bewails
Her act of darkness with the barbarous king!
Tomorrow may loveless, may lover tomorrow make
love.
XXII
She sings, we are silent. When will my spring come?
Shall I find my voice when I shall be as the swallow?
Silence destroyed the Amyclae: they were dumb.
Silent, I lost the muse. Return, Apollo!
Tomorrow let loveless, let lover tomorrow make love.
