This is the third poem from Nerval's collection of poetry, Les Chimeres, placed within the scope of the Western Canon by the ever-amiable Bloom of his own (not Joyce's) creation. I hesitate to set it in translation because, more than Myrtho, it is heavily dependent upon obscure Greek and Egyptian mythology (and probably involves other traditions as well) rather than imagery, and it is rather more difficult for me to translate mythology into satisfactory English verse. I try to avoid overt attempts at rhyme/meter in these translations, but the original is an Alexandrian sonnet set in an ABBA schema, the french "rime embrassee".

The gods, in order, are Horus (the sun god); Isis, fertility goddess and wife of Osiris; Cybele, or Gaia, the earth mother, goddess of prophecy and rebirth; Osiris, god of underworld and creation, husband of Isis; and Iris, the messenger god of Greek mythology, associated with the rainbow. In looking (very briefly) at some of the mythologies surrounding Osiris I came across a legend in which he is assaulted by his evil brother Set and cut into 12 pieces. In one tradition, the goddess Isis buries each piece in a sacred place; in another she reunites them together and restores her dead husband to life. The legend continues that Horus, their son, exacts vengeance on the wicked Tel and subsequently displaces Osiris as king of Egypt, whereupon Osiris takes up rulership of the underworld.

Horus

The god Kneph in spasms shook the spheres
Thus Isis, the mother, stirred from sleep,
Made a hateful sign to her rageful spouse,
And the ardor of other times burned in verdant eyes.

-- Look at him! -- she said -- He’s dead, the old sinner,
All the hoary frosts of the world have passed upon his lips;
Let us bind his contorted feet, extinguish his sinister eye,
For he is the god of volcanoes, and the king of winters!

-- His genius is already past, and a new spirit calls me,
So I’ve taken it up again, for Him, the Cybele’s robe…
For He is the well beloved son of Hermes and Osiris!

And the goddess having fled to the gilded shell
The sea again sends us her image well
Beloved and the skies shine under Iris’ sash.

A few notes on the translation (given according to line numbers): [4] especially awkward translation, compare with "Et l'ardeur d'autrefois brilla dans ses yeux verts." [5] French uses the 2nd person plural form, so I have translated Isis' speech as if it were a dramatic aside. [6] The word for hoary frosts is "frimas" -- I take it to be a euphemism for death, but a dictionary also reveals the word to mean "rime"...I leave it to the reader to speculate on any possible double meaning. [9] The word for genius, "aigle", can be taken more overtly to mean "eagle." [10] The title character of the poem is absent, a splendid effect (much the way God is absent from Dante's Commedia) that lends him a sort of majesty. The first "Him" refers to the ailing god Osiris, but the pronouns following have been capitalized to refer to the absent Horus. I admit this is also a bit awkward. [13] "Mer" (ocean/sea) could possibly be heard as "mere", a pun referring to Isis (which would be an interesting signification, since Isis is the goddess of the earth).