the complete poetical works-第111部分
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The light; the heat; the heart's desire。
Around Assisi's convent gate
The birds; God's poor who cannot wait;
From moor and mere and darksome wood
Came flocking for their dole of food。
〃O brother birds;〃 St。 Francis said;
〃Ye come to me and ask for bread;
But not with bread alone to…day
Shall ye be fed and sent away。
〃Ye shall be fed; ye happy birds;
With manna of celestial words;
Not mine; though mine they seem to be;
Not mine; though they be spoken through me。
〃O; doubly are ye bound to praise
The great Creator in your lays;
He giveth you your plumes of down;
Your crimson hoods; your cloaks of brown。
〃He giveth you your wings to fly
And breathe a purer air on high;
And careth for you everywhere;
Who for yourselves so little care!〃
With flutter of swift wings and songs
Together rose the feathered throngs;
And singing scattered far apart;
Deep peace was in St。 Francis' heart。
He knew not if the brotherhood
His homily had understood;
He only knew that to one ear
The meaning of his words was clear。
BELISARIUS
I am poor and old and blind;
The sun burns me; and the wind
Blows through the city gate
And covers me with dust
From the wheels of the august
Justinian the Great。
It was for him I chased
The Persians o'er wild and waste;
As General of the East;
Night after night I lay
In their camps of yesterday;
Their forage was my feast。
For him; with sails of red;
And torches at mast…head;
Piloting the great fleet;
I swept the Afric coasts
And scattered the Vandal hosts;
Like dust in a windy street。
For him I won again
The Ausonian realm and reign;
Rome and Parthenope;
And all the land was mine
From the summits of Apennine
To the shores of either sea。
For him; in my feeble age;
I dared the battle's rage;
To save Byzantium's state;
When the tents of Zabergan;
Like snow…drifts overran
The road to the Golden Gate。
And for this; for this; behold!
Infirm and blind and old;
With gray; uncovered head;
Beneath the very arch
Of my triumphal march;
I stand and beg my bread!
Methinks I still can hear;
Sounding distinct and near;
The Vandal monarch's cry;
As; captive and disgraced;
With majestic step he paced;
〃All; all is Vanity!〃
Ah! vainest of all things
Is the gratitude of kings;
The plaudits of the crowd
Are but the clatter of feet
At midnight in the street;
Hollow and restless and loud。
But the bitterest disgrace
Is to see forever the face
Of the Monk of Ephesus!
The unconquerable will
This; too; can bear;I still
Am Belisarius!
SONGO RIVER
Nowhere such a devious stream;
Save in fancy or in dream;
Winding slow through bush and brake
Links together lake and lake。
Walled with woods or sandy shelf;
Ever doubling on itself
Flows the stream; so still and slow
That it hardly seems to flow。
Never errant knight of old;
Lost in woodland or on wold;
Such a winding path pursued
Through the sylvan solitude。
Never school…boy in his quest
After hazel…nut or nest;
Through the forest in and out
Wandered loitering thus about。
In the mirror of its tide
Tangled thickets on each side
Hang inverted; and between
Floating cloud or sky serene。
Swift or swallow on the wing
Seems the only living thing;
Or the loon; that laughs and flies
Down to those reflected skies。
Silent stream! thy Indian name
Unfamiliar is to fame;
For thou hidest here alone;
Well content to be unknown。
But thy tranquil waters teach
Wisdom deep as human speech;
Moving without haste or noise
In unbroken equipoise。
Though thou turnest no busy mill;
And art ever calm and still;
Even thy silence seems to say
To the traveller on his way:
〃Traveller; hurrying from the heat
Of the city; stay thy feet!
Rest awhile; nor longer waste
Life with inconsiderate haste!
〃Be not like a stream that brawls
Loud with shallow waterfalls;
But in quiet self…control
Link together soul and soul〃
************
KERAMOS
Turn; turn; my wheel? Turn round and round
Without a pause; without a sound:
So spins the flying world away!
This clay; well mixed with marl and sand;
Follows the motion of my hand;
Far some must follow; and some command;
Though all are made of clay!
Thus sang the Potter at his task
Beneath the blossoming hawthorn…tree;
While o'er his features; like a mask;
The quilted sunshine and leaf…shade
Moved; as the boughs above him swayed;
And clothed him; till he seemed to be
A figure woven in tapestry;
So sumptuously was he arrayed
In that magnificent attire
Of sable tissue flaked with fire。
Like a magician he appeared;
A conjurer without book or beard;
And while he plied his magic art
For it was magical to me
I stood in silence and apart;
And wondered more and more to see
That shapeless; lifeless mass of clay
Rise up to meet the master's hand;
And now contract and now expand;
And even his slightest touch obey;
While ever in a thoughtful mood
He sang his ditty; and at times
Whistled a tune between the rhymes;
As a melodious interlude。
Turn; turn; my wheel! All things must change
To something new; to something strange;
Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax; the moon will wane;
The mist and cloud will turn to rain;
The rain to mist and cloud again;
To…morrow be to…day。
Thus still the Potter sang; and still;
By some unconscious act of will;
The melody and even the words
Were intermingled with my thought
As bits of colored thread are caught
And woven into nests of birds。
And thus to regions far remote;
Beyond the ocean's vast expanse;
This wizard in the motley coat
Transported me on wings of song;
And by the northern shores of France
Bore me with restless speed along。
What land is this that seems to be
A mingling of the land and sea?
This land of sluices; dikes; and dunes?
This water…net; that tessellates
The landscape? this unending maze
Of gardens; through whose latticed gates
The imprisoned pinks and tulips gaze;
Where in long summer afternoons
The sunshine; softened by the haze;
Comes streaming down as through a screen;
Where over fields and pastures green
The painted ships float high in air;
And over all and everywhere
The sails of windmills sink and soar
Like wings of sea…gulls on the shore?
What land is this? Yon pretty town
Is Delft; with all its wares displayed;
The pride; the market…place; the crown
And centre of the Potter's trade。
See! every house and room is bright
With glimmers of reflected light
From plates that on the dresser shine;
Flagons to foam with Flemish beer;
Or sparkle with the Rhenish wine;
And pilgrim flasks with fleurs…de…lis;
And ships upon a rolling sea;
And tankards pewter topped; and queer
With comic mask and musketeer!
Each hospitable chimney smiles
A welcome from its painted tiles;
The parlor walls; the chamber floors;
The stairways and the corridors;
The borders of the garden walks;
Are beautiful with fadeless flowers;
That never droop in winds or showers;
And never wither on their stalks。
Turn; turn; my wheel! All life is brief;
What now is bud wilt soon be leaf;
What now is leaf will soon decay;
The wind blows east; the wind blows west;
The blue eyes in the robin's nest
Will soon have wings and beak and breast;
And flutter and fly away。
Now southward through the air I glide;
The song my only pursuivant;
And see across the landscape wide
The blue Charente; upon whose tide
The belfries and the spires of Saintes
Ripple and rock from side to side;
As; when an earthquake rends its walls;
A crumbling city reels and falls。
Who is it in the suburbs here;
This Potter; working with such cheer;
In this mean house; this mean attire;
His manly features bronzed with fire;
Whose figulines and rustic wares
Scarce find him bread from day to day?
This madman; as the people say;
Who breaks his tables and his chairs
To feed his furnace fires; nor cares
Who goes unfed if they are fed;
Nor who may live if they are dead?
This alchemist with hollow cheeks
And sunken; searching eyes; who seeks;
By mingled earths and ores combined
With potency of fire; to find
Some new enamel; hard and bright;
His dream; his passion; his delight?
O Palissy! within thy breast
Burned the hot fever of unrest;
Thine was the prophets vision; thine
The exultation; the divine
Insanity of noble minds;
That never falters nor abates;
But labors and endures and waits;
Till all that it foresees it finds;
Or what it cannot find creates!
Turn; turn; my wheel! This earthen jar
A touch can make; a touch can mar;
And shall it to the Potter say;
What makest thou。 Thou hast no hand?
As men who think to understand
A world by their Creator planned;
Who wiser is than they。
Still guided by the dreamy song;
As in a trance I float along
Above the Pyrenean chain;
Above the fields and farms of Spain;
Above the bright Majorcan isle;
That lends its softened name to art;
A spot; a dot upon the chart;
Whose little towns; red…roofed with tile;
Are ruby…lustred with the light
Of blazing furnaces by night;
And crowned by day with wreaths of smoke。
Then eastward; wafted in my flight
On my enchanter's magic cloak;
I sail across the Tyrrhene Sea
Into the land of Italy;
And o'er the windy Apennines;
Mantled and musical with pines。
The palaces; the princely halls;
The doors of houses and the walls
Of churches and of belfry towers;
Cloister and castle; street and mart;
Are garlanded and gay with flowers
That blossom in the fields of art。
He