Let electrical
emanations be emitted,
shocking and shaking
nerves and muscles,
and insinuating themselves
into the cells
of the flaccid brain,
let them cast out inertia
and reawaken
activity and vigour.

Or let them dull the lively
senses, and induce
heavy, sluggish,
foggy vapours.
And whoever enters
the cave, let them
transmute and alter
his temperament and mood.
Did you hear? Or are you waiting for
stronger, more powerful incantations?

Chorus of spirits (from the depths of the cave): Why fire yourself up
with raucous cries?
Why have you summoned us
from the Stygian depths,
O great deceiver?

Trofonio: If a person should enter this cave
by one door and leave by the other,
change the melancholic mood to merry
and the merry to melancholic.
And if he then comes back, and leaves
through the opposite door,
let the first mood return.
Thus it is prescribed, and thus decreed
by the power of my magic spells.

Chorus of spirits: Here we are, ears
pricked to hear you,
ghosts and spirits
ever attentive
to do your will.

English: Avril Bardoni © 2015