The youth

When I was a boy

a god would often rescue me

from the screams and shouts of men;

there I would play, secure and good,

with the flowers of the grove,

and the breezes of the sky

would play with me.

And as you cheer the hearts

of plants

when toward you

they reach their tender arms,

so did you gladden my heart,

Father Helios!

and, like Endymion,

I was your beloved,

sacred Luna!

O all you constant,

amiable gods!

Would that you knew

how my soul loved you!

Though at that time I hardly called

you by name, nor did

you ever call me by my name as men do

when they know each other.

But I knew you better

than I ever knew any man;

I understood the silence of the Ether,

but the words of mankind I never understood.

I was brought up by the pleasind sound

of the rustling grove,

and I learned to love

beneath the flowers.

In the arms of the gods I became a man.