English Translation
Meanwhile, they see that as often as the mixing bowl is having been drained, it is replenished of its own will; the wine grows through itself: They are astonished, frightened by the newness, and by means of the turned upwards palm, Baucis and Philemon utter prayers, and they call for a favor with the lack of prepared feast. There was one goose, the smallest guard of the house, which the masters prepared to honor the guests/gods; that swift wing tired out the slow lifetime and escaped from it for a long time and at last it seemed to flee to the gods themselves. The gods forbade them (geese) to be killed, and they (the gods) said ‘we are gods, and this wicked region will suffer deserved punishment,’ they said; ‘it will be granted to you to be exempt from that evil. Only leave behind your roof and accompany our step and go at the same time on the steep mountain!’ They obeyed, both supported by a stick, they strain to walk to the slope. They went to the highest point, so far as the arrow is possible to shoot arrows in a single shot: that their eyes turned and they saw before themselves the others having been immersed by a swamp –only so much of their own roof remained – and then they were bewildered by this, then they wept for the fate of their neighbors, the hut that was tiny even for its poor inhabitants, turned into a temple. Columns replaced forked supports, straw thatching became golden, and the roof seemed to have been gilded, and gates had been carved, and marble covered the cottage’s earthen floor. Then the calm face of Saturn gave forth this: ‘Speak, fair old man and, fair wife, what you wish.’ When a little had been spoken by Baucis, the judgement of Philemon by the joint heavens explains: ‘We ask to be a priests of your temple and to protect it and because we have spent our years in harmony, should one hour steal us both at the same time, not at anytime should my wife witness my burial, nor should I be buried by her.’ The fulfillment of their wishes followed: guardianship of the temple was given until death. When the years and time were unbound, by chance they stood before the steps leading up to the temple, and at this place they recounted the having ended things, Baucis watched Philemon sprout leaves, Philemon watched the aged Baucis sprout leaves. And now above tops of the twin trees, the faces spoke to each other in turn, “Goodbye, oh spouse,” at the same time they spoke, at the same time the hidden by shrubs mouths weaved together. And still farmers of Bythinia point out the nearby twin bodies of the trunks.
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