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the complete poetical works-第112部分

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Are garlanded and gay with flowers

That blossom in the fields of art。

Here Gubbio's workshops gleam and glow

With brilliant; iridescent dyes;

The dazzling whiteness of the snow;

The cobalt blue of summer skies;

And vase and scutcheon; cup and plate;

In perfect finish emulate

Faenza; Florence; Pesaro。



Forth from Urbino's gate there came

A youth with the angelic name

Of Raphael; in form and face

Himself angelic; and divine

In arts of color and design。

From him Francesco Xanto caught

Something of his transcendent grace;

And into fictile fabrics wrought

Suggestions of the master's thought。

Nor less Maestro Giorgio shines

With madre…perl and golden lines

Of arabesques; and interweaves

His birds and fruits and flowers and leaves

About some landscape; shaded brown;

With olive tints on rock and town。

Behold this cup within whose bowl;

Upon a ground of deepest blue

With yellow…lustred stars o'erlaid;

Colors of every tint and hue

Mingle in one harmonious whole!

With large blue eyes and steadfast gaze;

Her yellow hair in net and braid;

Necklace and ear…rings all ablaze

With golden lustre o'er the glaze;

A woman's portrait; on the scroll;

Cana; the Beautiful!  A name

Forgotten save for such brief fame

As this memorial can bestow;

A gift some lover long ago

Gave with his heart to this fair dame。



A nobler title to renown

Is thine; O pleasant Tuscan town;

Seated beside the Arno's stream;

For Lucca della Robbia there

Created forms so wondrous fair;

They made thy sovereignty supreme。

These choristers with lips of stone;

Whose music is not heard; but seen;

Still chant; as from their organ…screen;

Their Maker's praise; nor these alone;

But the more fragile forms of clay;

Hardly less beautiful than they;

These saints and angels that adorn

The walls of hospitals; and tell

The story of good deeds so well

That poverty seems less forlorn;

And life more like a holiday。



Here in this old neglected church;

That long eludes the traveller's search;

Lies the dead bishop on his tomb;

Earth upon earth he slumbering lies;

Life…like and death…like in the gloom;

Garlands of fruit and flowers in bloom

And foliage deck his resting place;

A shadow in the sightless eyes;

A pallor on the patient face;

Made perfect by the furnace heat;

All earthly passions and desires

Burnt out by purgatorial fires;

Seeming to say; 〃Our years are fleet;

And to the weary death is sweet。〃



But the most wonderful of all

The ornaments on tomb or wall

That grace the fair Ausonian shores

Are those the faithful earth restores;

Near some Apulian town concealed;

In vineyard or in harvest field;

Vases and urns and bas…reliefs;

Memorials of forgotten griefs;

Or records of heroic deeds

Of demigods and mighty chiefs:

Figures that almost move and speak;

And; buried amid mould and weeds;

Still in their attitudes attest

The presence of the graceful Greek;

Achilles in his armor dressed;

Alcides with the Cretan bull;

And Aphrodite with her boy;

Or lovely Helena of Troy;

Still living and still beautiful。



Turn; turn; my wheel!  'T is nature's plan

The child should grow into the man;

  The man grow wrinkled; old; and gray;

In youth the heart exults and sings;

The pulses leap; the feet have wings;

In age the cricket chirps; and brings

  The harvest home of day。



And now the winds that southward blow;

And cool the hot Sicilian isle;

Bear me away。  I see below

The long line of the Libyan Nile;

Flooding and feeding the parched land

With annual ebb and overflow;

A fallen palm whose branches lie

Beneath the Abyssinian sky;

Whose roots are in Egyptian sands;

On either bank huge water…wheels;

Belted with jars and dripping weeds;

Send forth their melancholy moans;

As if; in their gray mantles hid;

Dead anchorites of the Thebaid

Knelt on the shore and told their beads;

Beating their breasts with loud appeals

And penitential tears and groans。



This city; walled and thickly set

With glittering mosque and minaret;

Is Cairo; in whose gay bazaars

The dreaming traveller first inhales

The perfume of Arabian gales;

And sees the fabulous earthen jars;

Huge as were those wherein the maid

Morgiana found the Forty Thieves

Concealed in midnight ambuscade;

And seeing; more than half believes

The fascinating tales that run

Through all the Thousand Nights and One;

Told by the fair Scheherezade。



More strange and wonderful than these

Are the Egyptian deities;

Ammonn; and Emeth; and the grand

Osiris; holding in his hand

The lotus; Isis; crowned and veiled;

The sacred Ibis; and the Sphinx;

Bracelets with blue enamelled links;

The Scarabee in emerald mailed;

Or spreading wide his funeral wings;

Lamps that perchance their night…watch kept

O'er Cleopatra while she slept;

All plundered from the tombs of kings。



Turn; turn; my wheel!  The human race;

Of every tongue; of every place;

  Caucasian; Coptic; or Malay;

All that inhabit this great earth;

Whatever be their rank or worth;

Are kindred and allied by birth;

  And made of the same clay。



O'er desert sands; o'er gulf and bay;

O'er Ganges and o'er Himalay;

Bird…like I fly; and flying sing;

To flowery kingdoms of Cathay;

And bird…like poise on balanced wing

Above the town of King…te…tching;

A burning town; or seeming so;

Three thousand furnaces that glow

Incessantly; and fill the air

With smoke uprising; gyre on gyre

And painted by the lurid glare;

Of jets and flashes of red fire。



As leaves that in the autumn fall;

Spotted and veined with various hues;

Are swept along the avenues;

And lie in heaps by hedge and wall;

So from this grove of chimneys whirled

To all the markets of the world;

These porcelain leaves are wafted on;

Light yellow leaves with spots and stains

Of violet and of crimson dye;

Or tender azure of a sky

Just washed by gentle April rains;

And beautiful with celadon。



Nor less the coarser household wares;

The willow pattern; that we knew

In childhood; with its bridge of blue

Leading to unknown thoroughfares;

The solitary man who stares

At the white river flowing through

Its arches; the fantastic trees

And wild perspective of the view;

And intermingled among these

The tiles that in our nurseries

Filled us with wonder and delight;

Or haunted us in dreams at night。



And yonder by Nankin; behold!

The Tower of Porcelain; strange and old;

Uplifting to the astonished skies

Its ninefold painted balconies;

With balustrades of twining leaves;

And roofs of tile; beneath whose eaves

Hang porcelain bells that all the time

Ring with a soft; melodious chime;

While the whole fabric is ablaze

With varied tints; all fused in one

Great mass of color; like a maze

Of flowers illumined by the sun。



Turn; turn; my wheel!  What is begun

At daybreak must at dark be done;

  To…morrow will be another day;

To…morrow the hot furnace flame

Will search the heart and try the frame;

And stamp with honor or with shame

  These vessels made of clay。



Cradled and rocked in Eastern seas;

The islands of the Japanese

Beneath me lie; o'er lake and plain

The stork; the heron; and the crane

Through the clear realms of azure drift;

And on the hillside I can see

The villages of Imari;

Whose thronged and flaming workshops lift

Their twisted columns of smoke on high;

Cloud cloisters that in ruins lie;

With sunshine streaming through each rift;

And broken arches of blue sky。



All the bright flowers that fill the land;

Ripple of waves on rock or sand;

The snow on Fusiyama's cone;

The midnight heaven so thickly sown

With constellations of bright stars;

The leaves that rustle; the reeds that make

A whisper by each stream and lake;

The saffron dawn; the sunset red;

Are painted on these lovely jars;

Again the skylark sings; again

The stork; the heron; and the crane

Float through the azure overhead;

The counterfeit and counterpart

Of Nature reproduced in Art。



Art is the child of Nature; yes;

Her darling child; in whom we trace

The features of the mother's face;

Her aspect and her attitude;

All her majestic loveliness

Chastened and softened and subdued

Into a more attractive grace;

And with a human sense imbued。

He is the greatest artist; then;

Whether of pencil or of pen;

Who follows Nature。  Never man;

As artist or as artisan;

Pursuing his own fantasies;

Can touch the human heart; or please;

Or satisfy our nobler needs;

As he who sets his willing feet

In Nature's footprints; light and fleet;

And follows fearless where she leads。



Thus mused I on that morn in May;

Wrapped in my visions like the Seer;

Whose eyes behold not what is near;

But only what is far away;

When; suddenly sounding peal on peal;

The church…bell from the neighboring town

Proclaimed the welcome hour of noon。

The Potter heard; and stopped his wheel;

His apron on the grass threw down;

Whistled his quiet little tune;

Not overloud nor overlong;

And ended thus his simple song:



Stop; stop; my wheel!  Too soon; too soon

The noon will be the afternoon;

  Too soon to…day be yesterday;

Behind us in our path we cast

The broken potsherds of the past;

And all are ground to dust a last;

  And trodden into clay!



*************





BIRDS OF PASSAGE



FLIGHT THE FIFTH



THE HERONS OF ELMWOOD



Warm and still is the summer night;

  As here by the river's brink I wander;

White overhead are the stars; and white

  The glimmering lamps on the hillside yonder。



Silent are all the sounds of day;

  Nothing I hear but the chirp of crickets;

And the cry of the herons winging their way

  O'er the poet's house in the Elmwood thickets。



Call to him; herons; as slowly you pass

  To your roosts in the haunts o

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