Page:Von Heidenstam - Sweden's laureate, selected poems of Verner von Heidenstam (1919).djvu/47

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Wedding of the Sisters
THE WEDDING OF THE SISTERS OF ISIS.
I.
Prolog: Chorus of the Sisters of Isis.

Raise the garlands, O ye virgin sisters,
From your hair unto the drowsy night!
O'er the desert now the twilight glisters.
Would the hour of evening ne'er took flight!
Would those girls of Thebes, each one so tender
Bearing to the well her polished jar,
Might be ever lovely, ever slender,
Ever youthful as to-night they are!
Would yon boys that on the mountains blue
To their flocks now call
Might stay children, and their lambkins too
Be but lambkins small!
Lift your voices, virgins pure, in weeping,
O'er each myrtle wreath let sweet tears well!
Bar the world from out the temple, keeping
But the sweet that in this eve doth dwell,
But the innocence of youthful creatures!
Let a refuge here for that be made,
Which with yonder boys and girls will fade,
Wearing only long-lost memory's features!

II.

After a listless day, when the cool of an eve in December

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