Les Sirenes (the Sirens)*

Once voyaging through the seas,
Whence gale was about to rage,
How seeing the huge waves,
Someone thought  of you,
The Sirens of the Sea, glowing like
Starry flowers near the islands
Of Anthemoessa, or is it so
There You forever glowed,
You winged maidens , the daughters
Of the River God, Achelous,
Is it so? That You came by the waves
Grand and eloquent, only to make
The sailors be enchanted, in dreams
As you them took away to Sirenum scopuli,
The dreaded island where from none
Can, even after trying hard, ever return?

But then, how is it, when it rains hard
And the lands seems to be driven by flood,
You come, as if maidens of Love,
Some say, thou art three,
Thelxiepeia, Aglaope and Perisinoe,
Some say thou art four, Raidne if,
One adds to the Three,
How you come knocking at my door,
This season of rains forthcoming,
How you I see, so enbalming,
Making the parched scorched earth,
Green again, wet and moist as I get
The chance again to live, by thy Piety,

O You three mythical sisters,
Once finding Thee, how sailors lost
Their ways, in the Sea, and yet,
They all came back, perhaps guided by Thee,
You sisters three, the daughters of the River,

How I find Thee, in artworks left
Some centuries ago, so colorful intricate,
How I find Thee, in Friedrich Paul Thumann's works, which he titled
Les sirenes,

How I find you in later ages too,
As if growing out of waters, You three,
The sisters of water, life, Poesy, paintings and dew.

(*Note: loosely based upon the painting as attached, done by William Edward Frost, 1810-1877.
#lesirenes : the title is Taken from a title of a painting by Friedrich Paul Thumann, based on the Greek Roman Myth of Sirens, the daughters of the Greek God of River and waters, Achelous.
#sirenumscopuli : the island mythical where the sirens supposedly live.
#wingedmaidens : Helen used this phrase to describe the sirens.)