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第6节

venus and adonis-第6节

小说: venus and adonis 字数: 每页4000字

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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


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