Hyperion to Diotima
It’s over, Diotima! our people have plundered, murdered without distinction, even our brothers are slain, the Greeks in Mistra, the innocent, or they wander about helpless and the lifeless anguish on their faces cries out to heaven and earth for vengeance against the barbarians at whose head I stood.
Now I can go forth and preach my good cause. Oh, now all hearts will fly to me!
But I went about it cleverly, didn’t I? I knew my people. Indeed! it was an extraordinary undertaking, to plant my Elysium with a band of brigands.
No! by holy Nemesis! I got what I deserved and I will bear it too, bear it till the pain tears my final consciousness asunder.
Do you think I’m raving? I have an honourable wound, dealt me by one of my faithful followers whilst I tried to avert the atrocity. If I were raving I’d rip the bandage from it, and then my blood would flow whither it belongs, into this grieving earth.
This grieving earth! this naked earth! that I sought to clothe with sacred groves, that I sought to adorn with all the flowers of Greek life!
Oh, it would have been beautiful, my Diotima.
Do you call me disheartened? Dear maiden! there’s too much calamity. Demented hordes burst in on all sides; rapine rages in Morea like a plague and anyone who doesn’t himself seize the sword is put to flight, butchered, and yet the maniacs claim they’re fighting for our freedom. Others from amongst the raw people are in the pay of the Sultan and they behave just the same.
I’ve just heard that our inglorious army is now scattered. At Tripolitsa the cowards met an Albanian troop that numbered half as many. But since there was nothing to plunder, the wretches all ran away. The Russians who'd ventured on the campaign with us, forty brave men, were the only ones to stand their ground, and all found their deaths.
And so now I’m alone again with my Alabanda, as before. Since he saw me fall and bleed in Mistra this faithful friend has forgotten all else, his hopes, his lust of victory, his despair. The man of wrath who plunged amongst the plunderers like an avenging god, he now so gently guided me out of the turmoil and my clothing was wet with his tears. He’s stayed with me too in the hut where I’ve since lain, and I’m now the more pleased about that. For had he gone on with the others, he’d now be lying in the dust at Tripolitsa.
How things will go from now on, I don’t know. Fate thrusts me out into confusion and that’s what I deserve; I’m banished from you by my own shame, and who knows for how long?
Oh! I promised you a Greece and now you get a dirge instead. Be your own comfort!