The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria

To your name ALESSANDRO, to your so rare
Valour, which shines unique in these papers,
The soul is kindled with honorable desire
To form a poem for you, noble and clear:
But because whatever sweetest songs have ever sung,
Humble and hoarse, render your great merit,
And in its own virtue ascends on high
So, that the thought barely reaches a par with it,
I am silent; for Apollo does not breathe
His notes in me, and Love, because I sometimes soar
Above the high clouds, does not feather my wings.
Nor should a marsh bird resound your praises;
When even before so great a sun,
The Eagle has neither eye, nor equal feathers.

You advance so much in deep, high virtues,
That whatever esteemed style the industrious hand
Moves today, poor and humble,
Does not respond to so noble a subject:
For in you, Apollo, not a little? courteous, infuses
A gentle spirit of immortal eloquence;
Whence even without you, neglected and vile
Would be the eternal frond of his Daphne:
But in a thousand ways your rare talent still opens
And is newly honored today
HERO: at the mercy of another: more dear.
Whence you alone are the support of your valour,
As the sun colors itself from itself.
Such you are in yourself, by yourself, sublime and clear.