AT THE FRONT OF THE BOOK

AN EXPLANATORY RECITATION.

Fall silent, Antiquity;

Long ago the water dried up,

Which the cupbearer of the poets,

PEGASUS, served.

Pegasus is the winged horse of Greek myth. According to legend, he created the Hippocrene fountain by striking Mount Helicon with his hoof.

The stream that watered Parnassus is as stiff as pumice stone:

Parnassus is a mountain in Greece sacred to Apollo and the Muses.

That which once made even the tongues of infants eloquent,

Has long, to our shame, been deserted.

Lower your crests, Nymph of Helicon;

Mount Helicon was the home of the Muses.

Whence, or where it once flowed, who knows?

The Muses themselves do not know,

original: "Castalides." This refers to the Muses, named after the Castalian Spring on Mount Parnassus.

Since they sang having drunk from it so many times.

And what wonder is it that Helicon appears nowhere,

If Greece itself has vanished, and migrated

Into the rest of EUROPE;

In which you might count more than one Athens,

Since you see almost innumerable centers of learning,

original: "Athenaea." This refers to the Athenaeum, a term for institutions dedicated to the promotion of learning and the arts.

Each beautiful with its own Apollo,

Each watered by its own fountain,

From which the wise men of Europe drink,

And are inspired.

original: "entheantur." This implies being filled with a divine or prophetic spirit.