When I was a boy
a god would often rescue me
from the screams and shouts of men;
there I would play, secure and good,
with the flowers of the grove,
and the breezes of the sky
would play with me.

And as you cheer the hearts
of plants
when toward you
they reach their tender arms,
so did you gladden my heart,
Father Helios!
and, like Endymion,
I was your beloved,
sacred Luna!

O all you constant,
amiable gods!
Would that you knew
how my soul loved you!

 ... 

But I knew you better
than I ever knew any man;
I understood the silence of the Ether,
but the words of mankind I never understood.

I was brought up by the pleasind sound
of the rustling grove,
and I learned to love
beneath the flowers.

In the arms of the gods I became a man.