Full Lyrics
Without my faith in heaven I could not live,
without believing there are gods who care,
who from their far untroubled home still give
some meaning to this pain that everywhere
rules over this uncaring chaos, life;
through all its random wounds the gods must weave
some pattern we may see if we believe.
I will not beg the gods for wealth or fame,
but for a heart unstained by bitterness;
to live unthreatened by the praise or blame
which both lead mighty houses to distress,
to bring to each day’s dawning such a mind
as will enable me to live that day,
and let tomorrow bring what grief it may.
Yet how may I keep faith now I have seen
the noblest house of Hellas brought so low?
O mountain meadow cloaked in leafy green,
O Virgin Lady of the Silver Bow
and coastal courseway where you are enshrined,
your most devoted lover will no more
rejoice in beauties of your woods and shore.
No more his chariot wheels will trace the ground
along the endless ocean’s fringe of sand;
no more, no more the songful lyre will sound
within his father’s hall by his skilled hand,
and girls with secret dreams to be the wife
who teaches such a man what love can be,
are weeping for a dream they’ll never see.
O ruined prince, O vanished purity:
how can the gods allow such things to be?
