“Will my dread sire his ear regardful deign,
And may his child the royal car obtain? 
Say, with my garments shall I bend my way? 
Where through the vales the mazy waters stray? 
A dignity of dress adorns the great,
And kings draw lustre from the robe of state. 
Five sons thou hast; three wait the bridal day. 
And spotless robes become the young and gay;
So when with praise amid the dance they shine,
By these my cares adorn’d that praise is mine.”

Thus she:  but blushes ill-restrain’d betray
Her thoughts intentive on the bridal day,
The conscious sire the dawning blush survey’d,
And, smiling, thus bespoke the blooming maid
“My child, my darling joy, the car receive;
That, and whate’er our daughter asks, we give.” 
Swift at the royal nod the attending train
The car prepare, the mules incessant rein,
The blooming virgin with despatchful cares
Tunics, and stoles, and robes imperial, bears. 
The queen, assiduous to her train assigns
The sumptuous viands, and the flavorous wines. 
The train prepare a cruse of curious mould,
A cruse of fragrance, form’d of burnish’d gold;
Odour divine! whose soft refreshing streams
Sleek the smooth skin, and scent the snowy limbs.

Now mounting the gay seat, the silken reins
Shine in her hand; along the sounding plains
Swift fly the mules; nor rode the nymph alone;
Around, a bevy of bright damsels shone. 
They seek the cisterns where Phaeacian dames
Wash their fair garments in the limpid streams;
Where, gathering into depth from falling rills,
The lucid wave a spacious bason fills. 
The mules, unharness’d, range beside the main,
Or crop the verdant herbage of the plain.

Then emulous the royal robes they lave,
And plunge the vestures in the cleansing wave
(The vestures cleansed o’erspread the shelly sand,
Their snowy lustre whitens all the strand);
Then with a short repast relieve their toil,
And o’er their limbs diffuse ambrosial oil;
And while the robes imbibe the solar ray,
O’er the green mead the sporting virgins play
(Their shining veils unbound).  Along the skies,
Toss’d and retoss’d, the ball incessant flies. 
They sport, they feast; Nausicaa lifts her voice,
And, warbling sweet, makes earth and heaven rejoice.

As when o’er Erymanth Diana roves,
Or wide Tuygetus’ resounding groves;
A sylvan train the huntress queen surrounds,
Her rattling quiver from her shoulders sounds: 
Fierce in the sport, along the mountain’s brow
They bay the boar, or chase the bounding roe;
High o’er the lawn, with more majestic pace,
Above the nymphs she treads with stately grace;
Distinguish’d excellence the goddess proves;
Exults Latona as the virgin moves. 
With equal grace Nausicaa trod the plain,
And shone transcendent o’er the beauteous train.