venus and adonis-第5节
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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