MAID OF ATHENS, ERE WE PART. BY LORD BYRON.
Reading edition
Zoè mou sas agapo. (My life, I love thee.)
Maid of Athens, ere we part, Give, oh, give me back my heart! Or, since that has left my breast, Keep it now and take the rest! Hear my vow before I go, Zoè mou sas agapo.
By those tresses unconfined, Woo’d by each Ægean wind; By those lids whose jetty fringe Kiss thy soft cheeks’ blooming tinge; By those wild eyes like the roe, Zoè mou sas agapo.
By that lip I long to taste; By that zone-encircled waist; By all the token-flowers that tell What words can never speak so well; By love’s alternate joy and woe, Zoè mou sas agapo.
Maid of Athens! I am gone: Think of me, sweet! when alone. Though I fly to Istambol, Athens holds my heart and soul: Can I cease to love thee? No! Zoè mou sas agapo.