the foaming sea. Now the rude talk of such as these I would avoid, that
no one afterwards may give me blame. For very forward persons are about
the place, and some coarse man might say, if he should meet us: 'What
tall and handsome stranger is following Nausicaä? Where did she find
him? A husband he will be, her very own. Some castaway, perhaps, she
rescued from his vessel, some foreigner; for we have no neighbors here.
Or at her prayer some long-entreated god has come straight down from
heaven, and he will keep her his forever. So much the better, if she has
gone herself and found a husband elsewhere! The people of our own land
here, Phaeacians, she disdains, though she has many high-born suitors.'
So they will talk, and for me it would prove a scandal. I should myself
censure a girl who acted so, who, heedless of friends, while father and
mother were alive, mingled with men before her public wedding. And,
stranger, listen now to what I say, that you may soon obtain assistance
and safe conduct from my father. Near our road you will see a stately
grove of poplar trees, belonging to Athene; in it a fountain flows, and
round it is a meadow. That is my father's park, his fruitful vineyard,
as far from the town as one can call. There sit and wait a while, until
we come to the town and reach my father's palace. But when you think we
have already reached the palace, enter the city of the Phaeacians, and
ask for the palace of my father, generous Alcinoüs. Easily is it known;
a child, though young, could show the way; for the Phaeacians do not
build their houses like the dwelling of Alcinoüs their prince. But when
his house and court receive you, pass quickly through the hall until you
find my mother. She sits in the firelight by the hearth, spinning
sea-purple yarn, a marvel to behold, and resting against a pillar. Her
handmaids sit behind her. Here too my father's seat rests on the
self-same pillar, and here he sits and sips his wine like an immortal.
Passing him by, stretch out your hands to our mother's knees, if you
would see the day of your return in gladness and with speed, although