venus and adonis-第6节
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Even so the timorous yelping of the hounds
Appals her senses and her spirit confounds。
For now she knows it is no gentle chase;
But the blunt boar; rough bear; or lion proud;
Because the cry remaineth in one place;
Where fearfully the dogs exclaim aloud。
Finding their enemy to be so curst;
They all strain court'sy who shall cope him first。
This dismal cry rings sadly in her car;
Through which it enters to surprise her heart;
Who; overcome by doubt and bloodless fear;
With cold…pale weakness numbs each feeling part;
Like soldiers; when their captain once doth yield;
They basely fly and dare not stay the field。
Thus stands she in a trembling ecstasy;
Till; cheering up her senses all dismayed;
She tells them 'tis a causeless fantasy;
And childish error; that they are afraid;
Bids them leave quaking; bids them fear no more;
And with that word she spied the hunted boar;
Whose frothy mouth; bepainted all with red;
Like milk and blood being mingled both together;
A second fear through all her sinews spread;
Which madly hurries her she knows not whither:
This way she runs; and now she will no further;
But back retires to rate the boar for murther。
A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways;
She treads the path that she untreads again;
Her more than haste is mated with delays;
Like the proceedings of a drunken brain;
Full of respects; yet nought at all respecting;
In hand with all things; nought at all effecting。
Here kennelled in a brake she finds a hound;
And asks the weary caitiff for his master;
And there another licking of his wound;
'Gainst venomed sores the only sovereign plaster;
And here she meets another sadly scowling;
To whom she speaks; and he replies with howling。
When he hath ceased his ill…resounding noise;
Another flap…mouthed mourner; black and grim;
Against the welkin volleys out his voice;
Another and another answer him;
Clapping their proud tails to the ground below;
Shaking their scratched ears; bleeding as they go。
Look how the world's poor people are amazed
At apparitions; signs and prodigies;
Whereon with fearful eyes they long have gazed;
Infusing them with dreadful prophecies;
So she at these sad signs draws up her breath;
And; sighing it again; exclaims on Death。
'Hard…favoured tyrant; ugly; meagre; lean;
Hateful divorce of love'… thus chides she Death…
'Grim…grinning ghost; earth's worm; what dost thou mean
To stifle beauty and to steal his breath
Who when he lived; his breath and beauty set
Gloss on the rose; smell to the violet?
'If he be dead… O no; it cannot be;
Seeing his beauty; thou shouldst strike at it…
O yes; it may; thou hast no eyes to see;
But hatefully at random dost thou hit。
Thy mark is feeble age; but thy false dart
Mistakes that aim; and cleaves an infant's heart。
'Hadst thou but bid beware; then he had spoke;
And; hearing him; thy power had lost his power。
The Destinies will curse thee for this stroke;
They bid thee crop a weed; thou pluck'st a flower。
Love's golden arrow at him should have fled;
And not Death's ebon dart; to strike him dead。
'Dost thou drink tears; that thou provokest such weeping?
What may a heavy groan advantage thee?
Why hast thou cast into eternal sleeping
Those eyes that taught all other eyes to see?
Now Nature cares not for thy mortal vigour;
Since her best work is ruined with thy rigour。'
Here overcome as one full of despair;
She vailed her eyelids; who; like sluices; stopped
The crystal tide that from her two cheeks fair
In the sweet channel of her bosom dropped;
But through the flood…gates breaks the silver rain;
And with his strong course opens them again。
O; how her eyes and tears did lend and borrow!
Her eye seen in the tears; tears in her eye;
Both crystals; where they viewed each other's sorrow;
Sorrow that friendly sighs sought still to dry;
But like a stormy day; now wind; now rain;
Sighs dry her cheeks; tears make them wet again。
Variable passions throng her constant woe;
As striving who should best become her grief;
All entertained; each passion labours so
That every present sorrow seemeth chief;
But none is best。 Then join they all together;
Like many clouds consulting for foul weather。
By this; far off she hears some huntsman holla;
A nurse's song ne'er pleased her babe so well。
The dire imagination she did follow
This sound of hope doth labour to expel;
For now reviving joy bids her rejoice;
And flatters her it is Adonis' voice。
Whereat her tears began to turn their tide;
Being prisoned in her eye like pearls in glass;
Yet sometimes falls an orient drop beside;
Which her cheek melts; as scorning it should pass
To wash the foul face of the sluttish ground;
Who is but drunken when she seemeth drowned。
O hard…believing love; how strange it seems
Not to believe; and yet too credulous!
Thy weal and woe are both of them extremes;
Despair; and hope makes thee ridiculous:
The one doth flatter thee in thoughts unlikely;
In likely thoughts the other kills thee quickly。
Now she unweaves the web that she hath wrought;
Adonis lives; and Death is not to blame;
It was not she that called him all to nought。
Now she adds honours to his hateful name;
She clepes him king of graves; and grave for kings;
Imperious supreme of all mortal things。
'No; no;' quoth she; 'sweet Death; I did but jest;
Yet pardon me; I felt a kind of fear
When as I met the boar; that bloody beast;
Which knows no pity; but is still severe。
Then; gentle shadow… truth I must confess…
I railed on thee; fearing my love's decease。
''Tis not my fault: the boar provoked my tongue;
Be wreaked on him; invisible commander;
'Tis he; foul creature; that hath done thee wrong;
I did but act; he's author of thy slander。
Grief hath two tongues; and never woman yet
Could rule them both withbut ten women's wit。'
Thus; hoping that Adonis is alive;
Her rash suspect she doth extenuate;
And that his beauty may the better thrive;
With Death she humbly doth insinuate;
Tells him of trophies; statues; tombs; and stories
His victories; his triumphs and his glories。
'O Jove;' quoth she; 'how much a fool was I
To be of such a weak and silly mind
To wail his death who lives and must not die
Till mutual overthrow of mortal kind!
For he being dead; with him is Beauty slain;
And; Beauty dead; black Chaos comes again。
'Fie; fie; fond love; thou art as full of fear
As one with treasure laden; hemmed with thieves;
Trifles unwitnessed with eye or ear
Thy coward heart with false bethinking grieves。'
Even at this word she hears a merry horn;
Whereat she leaps that was but late forlorn。
As falcons to the lure; away she flies;
The grass stoops not; she treads on it so light;
And in her haste unfortunately spies
The foul boar's conquest on her fair delight;
Which seen; her eyes; as murd'red with the view;
Like stars ashamed of day; themselves withdrew;
Or as the snail; whose tender horns being hit;
Shrinks backward in his shelly cave with pain;
And there all smoth'red up in shade doth sit;
Long after fearing to creep forth again;
So at his bloody view her eyes are fled
Into the deep…dark cabins of her head;
Where they resign their office and their light
To the disposing of her troubled brain;
Who bids them still consort with ugly night;
And never wound the heart with looks again;
Who; like a king perplexed in his throne;
By their suggestion gives a deadly groan;
Whereat each tributary subject quakes;
As when the wind; imprisoned in the ground;
Struggling for passage; earth's foundation shakes;
Which with cold terror doth men's minds confound。
This mutiny each part doth so surprise;
That from their dark beds once more leap her eyes;
And being opened; threw unwilling light
Upon the wide wound that the boar had trenched
In his soft flank; whose wonted lily white
With purple tears that his wound wept was drenched:
No flower was nigh; no grass; herb; leaf or weed;
But stole his blood and seemed with him to bleed。
This solemn sympathy poor Venus noteth;
Over one shoulder doth she hang her head;
Dumbly she passions; franticly she doteth;
She thinks he could not die; he is not dead。
Her voice is stopped; her joints forget to bow;
Her eyes are mad that they have wept till now。
Upon his hurt she looks so steadfastly