Heaven
Heaven
O who will show me those delights on high? Echo. I.1 You, Echo—you're mortal; everyone knows.2 Echo. No.3 Weren't you born among the trees and leaves? Echo.4 Leaves. And are there any leaves that still abide? Echo. Bide.5 What leaves are they? Tell me the whole matter.6 Echo. Holy. Are holy leaves the echo, then, of bliss? Echo. Yes. Then tell me, what is that supreme delight? Echo. Light. Light for the mind: what will the will enjoy? Echo. Joy. But are there ears and busyness with the pleasure?7 Echo. Leisure.8 Light, joy, and leisure; but will they persevere?9 Echo. Ever.10
Read the original English
O Who will show me those delights on high? Echo. I. Thou Echo, thou art mortall, all men know. Echo. No. Wert thou not born among the trees and leaves? Echo.
Leaves. And are there any leaves, that still abide? Echo. Bide. What leaves are they? impart the matter wholly. Echo. Holy.
Are holy leaves the Echo then of blisse? Echo. Yes. Then tell me, what is that supreme delight? Echo. Light. Light to the minde: what shall the will enjoy? Echo.
Joy. But are there eares and businesse with the pleasure? Echo. Leisure. Light, joy, and leisure; but shall they persever? Echo. Ever.
Notes
- 1 ↩Echo reply to 'high': keeps the poem's sound-play (high → I) and the first-person claim that Echo itself will show the delights.
- 2 ↩Final 'knows' preserves the Echo answer 'No' in s6 (source: know → No). 'Mortall' modernized to 'mortal'.
- 3 ↩Echo reply to 'know(s)': denies mortality, so the speaker is not a merely natural/mortal echo.
- 4 ↩Speaker cue only; the reply 'Leaves' falls in the next section (HerbTemple.2.161.2).
- 5 ↩Echo’s clipped reply to “abide”: remain, endure. Kept as “Bide” so the sound-play of the echo form still works.
- 6 ↩“Wholly” is kept at the line-end so the next echo (“Holy”) can answer by sound and sense.
- 7 ↩Early modern 'businesse' means occupation/busy affairs, not commercial trade; rendered 'busyness' to keep the contrast with Echo's answer 'Leisure' clear in contemporary English.
- 8 ↩Echo answer to 'pleasure'/'busyness': heavenly delight is pure leisure, free of earthly occupation.
- 9 ↩Source 'persever' modernized to 'persevere' (endure/continue). Kept over 'last' so the Echo answer 'Ever' still sounds from the line's close.
- 10 ↩Echo of 'persevere': light, joy, and leisure in heaven endure forever.
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