Theocritus Idyll 11: the Cyclops 38-49

[hawkwing_lb]

[38] συρίσδεν δ᾽ ὡς οὔτις ἐπίσταμαι ὧδε Κυκλώπων,
τὶν τὸ φίλον γλυκύμαλον ἁμᾷ κἠμαυτὸν ἀείδων
πολλάκι νυκτὸς ἀωρί. τρέφω δέ τοι ἕνδεκα νεβρὼς
πάσας μηνοφόρως καὶ σκύμνως τέσσαρας ἄρκτων.
ἀλλ᾽ ἀφίκευσο ποθ᾽ ἁμέ, καὶ ἑξεῖς οὐδὲν ἔλασσον,
τὰν γλαυκὰν δὲ θάλασσαν ἔα ποτὶ χέρσον ὀρεχθεῖν.
ἅδιον ἐν τὤντρῳ παρ᾽ ἐμὶν τὰν νύκτα διαξεῖς.
[45] ἐντὶ δάφναι τηνεῖ, ἐντὶ ῥαδιναὶ κυπάρισσοι,
ἔστι μέλας κισσός, ἔστ᾽ ἄμπελος ἁ γλυκύκαρπος,
ἔστι ψυχρὸν ὕδωρ, τό μοι ἁ πολυδένδρεος Αἴτνα
λευκᾶς ἐκ χιόνος ποτὸν ἀμβρόσιον προΐητι.
τίς κα τῶνδε θάλασσαν ἔχειν καὶ κύμαθ᾽ ἕλοιτο;

And no one, so I believe, among the Cyclops pipes in this way,
singing to you sweet-apple love, at the same time as myself,
often at an untimely hour of night. For you I'd rear eleven fawns,
all life-bearing, and four cubs of bears.
But come to anywhere ours, and you will have nothing less,
than the gleaming sea [that] suffers to rattle at the side of dry land.
You'll spend the night more pleasantly in a cave with me.
It is there among sweet bay, it is among slender cypresses,
black ivy is there, grape-vine which bears sweet fruit,
cold water is there, which for me Etna the boundless-treed
sends forth white from snow, divine for drinking.
Who would take for themselves this sea to have, and the waves?