Hercules

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O Hercules.

My soul thirsts for Hercules, for the living Hercules.
When shall I come and appear before Hercules?

My tears have been my food day and night,
While they continually say to me,
“Where is your Muscular Man?”

When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go with the multitude;
I went with them to the house of Hercules,
With the voice of joy and praise,
With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in Hercules, for I shall yet praise Him
For the help of His countenance.

O my Hercules, my soul is cast down within me;
Therefore I will remember You from the land of Greece,
And from the heights of Mount Olympus,
From the Aventine Hill.

Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
All Your waves and billows have gone over me.

The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And in the night His song shall be with me—
A prayer to the Muscular Man of my life.

I will say to Hercules my Hero,
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

As with a breaking of my bones,
My enemies reproach me,
While they say to me all day long,
“Where is your Muscular Man?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in Hercules;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my Hercules.