太子爷小说网 > 英语电子书 > moments of vision and miscellaneous verses >

第5节

moments of vision and miscellaneous verses-第5节

小说: moments of vision and miscellaneous verses 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!



His the victor's; as he lit
Candles where he had bidden us sit
   With vanquished look。

Now her dust lies listless there;
His afar from tending hand;
What avails the victory scanned?
Does he smile from upper air:
〃Ah; my friend; your dream is done;
And 'tis YOU who have begun
   To understand!



〃I TRAVEL AS A PHANTOM NOW〃



I travel as a phantom now;
For people do not wish to see
In flesh and blood so bare a bough
   As Nature makes of me。

And thus I visit bodiless
Strange gloomy households often at odds;
And wonder if Man's consciousness
   Was a mistake of God's。

And next I meet you; and I pause;
And think that if mistake it were;
As some have said; O then it was
   One that I well can bear!

1915。



LINES
TO A MOVEMENT IN MOZART'S E…FLAT SYMPHONY



      Show me again the time
      When in the Junetide's prime
   We flew by meads and mountains northerly! …
Yea; to such freshness; fairness; fulness; fineness; freeness;
      Love lures life on。

      Show me again the day
      When from the sandy bay
   We looked together upon the pestered sea! …
Yea; to such surging; swaying; sighing; swelling; shrinking;
      Love lures life on。

      Show me again the hour
      When by the pinnacled tower
   We eyed each other and feared futurity! …
Yea; to such bodings; broodings; beatings; blanchings; blessings;
      Love lures life on。

      Show me again just this:
      The moment of that kiss
   Away from the prancing folk; by the strawberry…tree! …
Yea; to such rashness; ratheness; rareness; ripeness; richness;
      Love lures life on。

Begun November 1898。



〃IN THE SEVENTIES〃



〃Qui deridetur ab amico suo sicut ego。〃JOB。

In the seventies I was bearing in my breast;
         Penned tight;
Certain starry thoughts that threw a magic light
On the worktimes and the soundless hours of rest
In the seventies; aye; I bore them in my breast
         Penned tight。

In the seventies when my neighbourseven my friend …
         Saw me pass;
Heads were shaken; and I heard the words; 〃Alas;
For his onward years and name unless he mend!〃
In the seventies; when my neighbours and my friend
      Saw me pass。

In the seventies those who met me did not know
      Of the vision
That immuned me from the chillings of mis…prision
And the damps that choked my goings to and fro
In the seventies; yea; those nodders did not know
      Of the vision。

In the seventies nought could darken or destroy it;
      Locked in me;
Though as delicate as lamp…worm's lucency;
Neither mist nor murk could weaken or alloy it
In the seventies!could not darken or destroy it;
      Locked in me。



THE PEDIGREE



I

         I bent in the deep of night
      Over a pedigree the chronicler gave
      As mine; and as I bent there; half…unrobed;
The uncurtained panes of my window…square let in the watery light
         Of the moon in its old age:
And green…rheumed clouds were hurrying past where mute and cold it
globed
   Like a drifting dolphin's eye seen through a lapping wave。

II

         So; scanning my sire…sown tree;
      And the hieroglyphs of this spouse tied to that;
         With offspring mapped below in lineage;
         Till the tangles troubled me;
The branches seemed to twist into a seared and cynic face
   Which winked and tokened towards the window like a Mage
      Enchanting me to gaze again thereat。

III

         It was a mirror now;
      And in it a long perspective I could trace
   Of my begetters; dwindling backward each past each
         All with the kindred look;
      Whose names had since been inked down in their place
         On the recorder's book;
Generation and generation of my mien; and build; and brow。

IV

         And then did I divine
      That every heave and coil and move I made
      Within my brain; and in my mood and speech;
         Was in the glass portrayed
      As long forestalled by their so making it;
   The first of them; the primest fuglemen of my line;
Being fogged in far antiqueness past surmise and reason's reach。

V

         Said I then; sunk in tone;
   〃I am merest mimicker and counterfeit! …
         Though thinking; I AM I
   AND WHAT I DO I DO MYSELF ALONE。〃
  The cynic twist of the page thereat unknit
Back to its normal figure; having wrought its purport wry;
   The Mage's mirror left the window…square;
And the stained moon and drift retook their places there。

1916。



THIS HEART
A WOMAN'S DREAM



   At midnight; in the room where he lay dead
   Whom in his life I had never clearly read;
I thought if I could peer into that citadel
   His heart; I should at last know full and well

   What hereto had been known to him alone;
   Despite our long sit…out of years foreflown;
〃And if;〃 I said; 〃I do this for his memory's sake;
   It would not wound him; even if he could wake。〃

   So I bent over him。  He seemed to smile
   With a calm confidence the whole long while
That I; withdrawing his heart; held it and; bit by bit;
   Perused the unguessed things found written on it。

   It was inscribed like a terrestrial sphere
   With quaint vermiculations close and clear …
His graving。  Had I known; would I have risked the stroke
   Its reading brought; and my own heart nigh broke!

   Yes; there at last; eyes opened; did I see
   His whole sincere symmetric history;
There were his truth; his simple singlemindedness;
   Strained; maybe; by time's storms; but there no less。

   There were the daily deeds from sun to sun
   In blindness; but good faith; that he had done;
There were regrets; at instances wherein he swerved
   (As he conceived) from cherishings I had deserved。

   There were old hours all figured down as bliss …
   Those spent with me(how little had I thought this!)
There those when; at my absence; whether he slept or waked;
   (Though I knew not 'twas so!) his spirit ached。

   There that when we were severed; how day dulled
   Till time joined us anew; was chronicled:
And arguments and battlings in defence of me
   That heart recorded clearly and ruddily。

   I put it back; and left him as he lay
   While pierced the morning pink and then the gray
Into each dreary room and corridor around;
   Where I shall wait; but his step will not sound。



WHERE THEY LIVED



   Dishevelled leaves creep down
   Upon that bank to…day;
Some green; some yellow; and some pale brown;
   The wet bents bob and sway;
The once warm slippery turf is sodden
   Where we laughingly sat or lay。

   The summerhouse is gone;
   Leaving a weedy space;
The bushes that veiled it once have grown
   Gaunt trees that interlace;
Through whose lank limbs I see too clearly
   The nakedness of the place。

   And where were hills of blue;
   Blind drifts of vapour blow;
And the names of former dwellers few;
   If any; people know;
And instead of a voice that called; 〃Come in; Dears;〃
   Time calls; 〃Pass below!〃



THE OCCULTATION



When the cloud shut down on the morning shine;
   And darkened the sun;
I said; 〃So ended that joy of mine
   Years back begun。〃

But day continued its lustrous roll
   In upper air;
And did my late irradiate soul
   Live on somewhere?



LIFE LAUGHS ONWARD



Rambling I looked for an old abode
Where; years back; one had lived I knew;
Its site a dwelling duly showed;
   But it was new。

I went where; not so long ago;
The sod had riven two breasts asunder;
Daisies throve gaily there; as though
   No grave were under。

I walked along a terrace where
Loud children gambolled in the sun;
The figure that had once sat there
   Was missed by none。

Life laughed and moved on unsubdued;
I saw that Old succumbed to Young:
'Twas well。  My too regretful mood
   Died on my tongue。



THE PEACE…OFFERING



It was but a little thing;
Yet I knew it meant to me
Ease from what had given a sting
To the very birdsinging
   Latterly。

But I would not welcome it;
And for all I then declined
O the regrettings infinite
When the night…processions flit
   Through the mind!



〃SOMETHING TAPPED〃



Something tapped on the pane of my room
   When there was never a trace
Of wind or rain; and I saw in the gloom
   My weary Beloved's face。

〃O I am tired of waiting;〃 she said;
   〃Night; morn; noon; afternoon;
So cold it is in my lonely bed;
   And I thought you would join me soon!〃

I rose and neared the window…glass;
   But vanished thence had she:
Only a pallid moth; alas;
   Tapped at the pane for me。

August 1913。



THE WOUND



I climbed to the crest;
   And; fog…festooned;
The sun lay west
   Like a crimson wound:

Like that wound of mine
   Of which none knew;
For I'd given no sign
   That it pierced me through。



A MERRYMAKING IN QUESTION



〃I will get a new string for my fiddle;
   And call to the neighbours to come;
And partners shall dance down the middle
   Until the old pewter…wares hum:
   And we'll sip the mead; cyder; and rum!〃

From the night came the oddest of answers:
   A hollow wind; like a bassoon;
And headstones all ranged up as dancers;
   And cypresses droning 

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的