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第5节

venus and adonis-第5节

小说: venus and adonis 字数: 每页4000字

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    As if another chase were in the skies。



  'By this; poor Wat; far off upon a hill;

  Stands on his hinder legs with list'ning ear;

  To hearken if his foes pursue him still;

  Anon their loud alarums he doth hear;

    And now his grief may be compared well

    To one sore sick that hears the passing…bell。



  'Then shalt thou see the dew…bedabbled wretch

  Turn; and return; indenting with the way;

  Each envious brier his weary legs do scratch;

  Each shadow makes him stop; each murmur stay;

    For misery is trodden on by many;

    And being low never relieved by any。



  'Lie quietly and hear a little more;

  Nay; do not struggle; for thou shalt not rise。

  To make thee hate the hunting of the boar;

  Unlike myself thou hear'st me moralize;

    Applying this to that; and so to so;

    For love can comment upon every woe。



  'Where did I leave?' 'No matter where;' quoth he;

  'Leave me; and then the story aptly ends。

  The night is spent。' 'Why; what of that?' quoth she。

  'I am'; quoth he; 'expected of my friends;

    And now 'tis dark; and going I shall fall。'

    'In night'; quoth she; 'desire sees best of all。



  'But if thou fall; O; then imagine this;

  The earth; in love with thee; thy footing trips;

  And all is but to rob thee of a kiss。

  Rich preys make true men thieves; so do thy lips

    Make modest Dian cloudy and forlorn;

    Lest she should steal a kiss; and die forsworn。



  'Now of this dark night I perceive the reason:

  Cynthia for shame obscures her silver shine;

  Till forging Nature be condemned of treason;

  For stealing moulds from heaven that were divine;

    Wherein she framed thee; in high heaven's despite;

    To shame the sun by day and her by night。



  'And therefore hath she bribed the Destinies

  To cross the curious workmanship of Nature;

  To mingle beauty with infirmities

  And pure perfection with impure defeature;

    Making it subject to the tyranny

    Of mad mischances and much misery;



  'As burning fevers; agues pale and faint;

  Life…poisoning pestilence and frenzies wood;

  The marrow…eating sickness whose attaint

  Disorder breeds by heating of the blood;

    Surfeits; imposthumes; grief and damned despair;

    Swear Nature's death for framing thee so fair。



  'And not the least of all these maladies

  But in one minute's fight brings beauty under。

  Both favour; savour; hue and qualities;

  Whereat th'impartial gazer late did wonder;

    Are on the sudden wasted; thawed and done;

    As mountain snow melts with the midday sun。



  'Therefore; despite of fruitless chastity;

  Love…lacking vestals and self…loving nuns;

  That on the earth would breed a scarcity

  And barren dearth of daughters and of sons;

    Be prodigal: the lamp that burns by night

    Dries up his oil to lend the world his light。



  'What is thy body but a swallowing grave;

  Seeming to bury that posterity

  Which by the rights of time thou needs must have;

  If thou destroy them not in dark obscurity?

    If so; the world will hold thee in disdain;

    Sith in thy pride so fair a hope is slain。



  'So in thyself thyself art made away;

  A mischief worse than civil home…bred strife;

  Or theirs whose desperate hands themselves do slay;

  Or butcher sire that reaves his son of life。

    Foul cank'ring rust the hidden treasure frets;

    But gold that's put to use more gold begets。'



  'Nay; then;' quoth Adon; you will fall again

  Into your idle over…handied theme;

  The kiss I gave you is bestowed in vain;

  And all in vain you strive against the stream;

    For; by this black…faced night; desire's foul nurse;

    Your treatise makes me like you worse and worse。



  'If love have lent you twenty thousand tongues;

  And every tongue more moving than your own;

  Bewitching like the wanton mermaid's songs;

  Yet from mine ear the tempting tune is blown;

    For know; my heart stands armed in mine ear;

    And will not let a false sound enter there;



  'Lest the deceiving harmony should run

  Into the quiet closure of my breast;

  And then my little heart were quite undone;

  In his bedchamber to be barred of rest。

    No; lady; no; my heart longs not to groan;

    But soundly sleeps; while now it sleeps alone。



  'What have you urged that I cannot reprove?

  The path is smooth that leadeth on to danger;

  I hate not love; but your device in love

  That lends embracements unto every stranger。

    You do it for increase: O strange excuse;

    When reason is the bawd to lust's abuse!



  'Call it not love; for Love to heaven is fled

  Since sweating Lust on earth usurped his name;

  Under whose simple semblance he hath fed

  Upon fresh beauty; blotting it with blame;

    Which the hot tyrant stains and soon bereaves;


    As caterpillars do the tender leaves。



  'Love comforteth like sunshine after rain;

  But Lust's effect is tempest after sun;

  Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain;

  Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done;

    Love surfeits not; Lust like a glutton dies;

    Love is all truth; Lust full of forged lies。



  'More I could tell; but more I dare not say;

  The text is old; the orator too green。

  Therefore; in sadness; now I will away;

  My face is full of shame; my heart of teen:

    Mine ears that to your wanton talk attended

    Do burn themselves for having so offended。'



  With this; he breaketh from the sweet embrace

  Of those fair arms which bound him to her breast;

  And homeward through the dark lawnd runs apace;

  Leaves Love upon her back deeply distressed。

    Look how a bright star shooteth from the sky;

    So glides he in the night from Venus' eye;



  Which after him she darts; as one on shore

  Gazing upon a late…embarked friend;

  Till the wild waves will have him seen no more;

  Whose ridges with the meeting clouds contend;

    So did the merciless and pitchy night

    Fold in the object that did feed her sight。



  Whereat amazed as one that unaware

  Hath dropped a precious jewel in the flood;

  Or 'stonished as night…wand'rers often are;

  Their light blown out in some mistrustful wood;

    Even so confounded in the dark she lay;

    Having lost the fair discovery of her way。



  And now she beats her heart; whereat it groans;

  That all the neighbour caves; as seeming troubled;

  Make verbal repetition of her moans;

  Passion on passion deeply is redoubled:

    'Ay me!' she cries; and twenty times; 'Woe; woe!'

    And twenty echoes twenty times cry so。



  She; marking them; begins a wailing note;

  And sings extemporally a woeful ditty;

  How love makes young men thrall; and old men dote;

  How love is wise in folly; foolish witty:

    Her heavy anthem still concludes in woe;

    And still the choir of echoes answer so。



  Her song was tedious; and outwore the night;

  For lovers' hours are long; though seeming short;

  If pleased themselves; others; they think; delight

  In such…like circumstance; with such…like sport。

    Their copious stories; oftentimes begun;

    End without audience; and are never done。



  For who hath she to spend the night withal

  But idle sounds resembling parasites;

  Like shrill…tongued tapsters answering every call;

  Soothing the humour of fantastic wits?

    She says ''Tis so'; they answer all ''Tis so';

    And would say after her; if she said 'No'。



  Lo; here the gentle lark; weary of rest;

  From his moist cabinet mounts up on high;

  And wakes the morning; from whose silver breast

  The sun ariseth in his majesty;

    Who doth the world so gloriously behold

    That cedar…tops and hills seem burnished gold。



  Venus salutes him with this fair good…morrow:

  'O thou clear god; and patron of all light;

  From whom each lamp and shining star doth borrow

  The beauteous influence that makes him bright;

    There lives a son that sucked an earthly mother

    May lend thee light; as thou dost lend to other。'



  This said; she hasteth to a myrtle grove;

  Musing the morning is so much o'erworn;

  And yet she hears no tidings of her love;

  She hearkens for his hounds and for his horn。

    Anon she hears them chant it lustily;

    And all in haste she coasteth to the cry。



  And as she runs; the bushes in the way

  Some catch her by the neck; some kiss her face;

  Some twind about her thigh to make her stay;

  She wildly breaketh from their strict embrace;

    Like a milch doe; whose swelling dugs do ache;

    Hasting to feed her fawn hid in some brake。



  By this she hears the hounds are at a bay;

  Whereat she starts; like one that spies an adder

  Wreathed up in fatal folds just in his way;

  The fear whereof doth make him shake and shudder;

    Even so the timorous yelping of the hounds

    Appals her senses a

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