the complete poetical works-第21部分
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Everywhere I see around me rise the wondrous world of Art:
Fountains wrought with richest sculpture standing in the common
mart;
And above cathedral doorways saints and bishops carved in stone;
By a former age commissioned as apostles to our own。
In the church of sainted Sebald sleeps enshrined his holy dust;
And in bronze the Twelve Apostles guard from age to age their
trust;
In the church of sainted Lawrence stands a pix of sculpture rare;
Like the foamy sheaf of fountains; rising through the painted
air。
Here; when Art was still religion; with a simple; reverent heart;
Lived and labored Albrecht Durer; the Evangelist of Art;
Hence in silence and in sorrow; toiling still with busy hand;
Like an emigrant he wandered; seeking for the Better Land。
Emigravit is the inscription on the tombstone where he lies;
Dead he is not; but departed;for the artist never dies。
Fairer seems the ancient city; and the sunshine seems more fair;
That he once has trod its pavement; that he once has breathed its
air!
Through these streets so broad and stately; these obscure and
dismal lanes;
Walked of yore the Mastersingers; chanting rude poetic strains。
From remote and sunless suburbs came they to the friendly guild;
Building nests in Fame's great temple; as in spouts the swallows
build。
As the weaver plied the shuttle; wove he too the mystic rhyme;
And the smith his iron measures hammered to the anvil's chime;
Thanking God; whose boundless wisdom makes the flowers of poesy
bloom
In the forge's dust and cinders; in the tissues of the loom。
Here Hans Sachs; the cobbler…poet; laureate of the gentle craft;
Wisest of the Twelve Wise Masters; in huge folios sang and
laughed。
But his house is now an ale…house; with a nicely sanded floor;
And a garland in the window; and his face above the door;
Painted by some humble artist; as in Adam Puschman's song;
As the old man gray and dove…like; with his great beard white and
long。
And at night the swart mechanic comes to drown his cark and care;
Quaffing ale from pewter tankard; in the master's antique chair。
Vanished is the ancient splendor; and before my dreamy eye
Wave these mingled shapes and figures; like a faded tapestry。
Not thy Councils; not thy Kaisers; win for thee the world's
regard;
But thy painter; Albrecht Durer; and Hans Sachs thy cobbler…bard。
Thus; O Nuremberg; a wanderer from a region far away;
As he paced thy streets and court…yards; sang in thought his
careless lay:
Gathering from the pavement's crevice; as a floweret of the soil;
The nobility of labor;the long pedigree of toil。
THE NORMAN BARON
Dans les moments de la vie ou la reflexion devient plus calme
et plus profonde; ou l'interet et l'avarice parlent moins haut
que la raison; dans les instants de chagrin domestique; de
maladie; et de peril de mort; les nobles se repentirent de
posseder des serfs; comme d'une chose peu agreable a Dieu; qui
avait cree tous les hommes a son image。THIERRY; Conquete de
l'Angleterre。
In his chamber; weak and dying;
Was the Norman baron lying;
Loud; without; the tempest thundered
And the castle…turret shook;
In this fight was Death the gainer;
Spite of vassal and retainer;
And the lands his sires had plundered;
Written in the Doomsday Book。
By his bed a monk was seated;
Who in humble voice repeated
Many a prayer and pater…noster;
From the missal on his knee;
And; amid the tempest pealing;
Sounds of bells came faintly stealing;
Bells; that from the neighboring kloster
Rang for the Nativity。
In the hall; the serf and vassal
Held; that night their Christmas wassail;
Many a carol; old and saintly;
Sang the minstrels and the waits;
And so loud these Saxon gleemen
Sang to slaves the songs of freemen;
That the storm was heard but faintly;
Knocking at the castle…gates。
Till at length the lays they chanted
Reached the chamber terror…haunted;
Where the monk; with accents holy;
Whispered at the baron's ear。
Tears upon his eyelids glistened;
As he paused awhile and listened;
And the dying baron slowly
Turned his weary head to hear。
〃Wassail for the kingly stranger
Born and cradled in a manger!
King; like David; priest; like Aaron;
Christ is born to set us free!〃
And the lightning showed the sainted
Figures on the casement painted;
And exclaimed the shuddering baron;
〃Miserere; Domine!〃
In that hour of deep contrition
He beheld; with clearer vision;
Through all outward show and fashion;
Justice; the Avenger; rise。
All the pomp of earth had vanished;
Falsehood and deceit were banished;
Reason spake more loud than passion;
And the truth wore no disguise。
Every vassal of his banner;
Every serf born to his manor;
All those wronged and wretched creatures;
By his hand were freed again。
And; as on the sacred missal
He recorded their dismissal;
Death relaxed his iron features;
And the monk replied; 〃Amen!〃
Many centuries have been numbered
Since in death the baron slumbered
By the convent's sculptured portal;
Mingling with the common dust:
But the good deed; through the ages
Living in historic pages;
Brighter grows and gleams immortal;
Unconsumed by moth or rust
RAIN IN SUMMER
How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat;
In the broad and fiery street;
In the narrow lane;
How beautiful is the rain!
How it clatters along the roofs;
Like the tramp of hoofs
How it gushes and struggles out
From the throat of the overflowing spout!
Across the window…pane
It pours and pours;
And swift and wide;
With a muddy tide;
Like a river down the gutter roars
The rain; the welcome rain!
The sick man from his chamber looks
At the twisted brooks;
He can feel the cool
Breath of each little pool;
His fevered brain
Grows calm again;
And he breathes a blessing on the rain。
From the neighboring school
Come the boys;
With more than their wonted noise
And commotion;
And down the wet streets
Sail their mimic fleets;
Till the treacherous pool
Ingulfs them in its whirling
And turbulent ocean。
In the country; on every side;
Where far and wide;
Like a leopard's tawny and spotted hide;
Stretches the plain;
To the dry grass and the drier grain
How welcome is the rain!
In the furrowed land
The toilsome and patient oxen stand;
Lifting the yoke encumbered head;
With their dilated nostrils spread;
They silently inhale
The clover…scented gale;
And the vapors that arise
From the well…watered and smoking soil。
For this rest in the furrow after toil
Their large and lustrous eyes
Seem to thank the Lord;
More than man's spoken word。
Near at hand;
From under the sheltering trees;
The farmer sees
His pastures; and his fields of grain;
As they bend their tops
To the numberless beating drops
Of the incessant rain。
He counts it as no sin
That he sees therein
Only his own thrift and gain。
These; and far more than these;
The Poet sees!
He can behold
Aquarius old
Walking the fenceless fields of air;
And from each ample fold
Of the clouds about him rolled
Scattering everywhere
The showery rain;
As the farmer scatters his grain。
He can behold
Things manifold
That have not yet been wholly told;
Have not been wholly sung nor said。
For his thought; that never stops;
Follows the water…drops
Down to the graves of the dead;
Down through chasms and gulfs profound;
To the dreary fountain…head
Of lakes and rivers under ground;
And sees them; when the rain is done;
On the bridge of colors seven
Climbing up once more to heaven;
Opposite the setting sun。
Thus the Seer;
With vision clear;
Sees forms appear and disappear;
In the perpetual round of strange;
Mysterious change
From birth to death; from death to birth;
From earth to heaven; from heaven to earth;
Till glimpses more sublime
Of things; unseen before;
Unto his wondering eyes reveal
The Universe; as an immeasurable wheel
Turning forevermore
In the rapid and rushing river of Time。
TO A CHILD
Dear child! how radiant on thy mother's knee;
With merry…making eyes and jocund smiles;
Thou gazest at the painted tiles;
Whose figures grace;
With many a grotesque form and face。
The ancient chimney of thy nursery!
The lady with the gay macaw;
The dancing girl; the grave bashaw
With bearded lip and chin;
And; leaning idly o'er his gate;
Beneath the imperial fan of state;
The Chinese mandarin。
With what a look of proud command
Thou shakest in thy little hand
The coral rattle with its silver bells;
Making a merry tune!
Thousands of years in Indian seas
That coral grew; by slow degrees;
Until some deadly and wild monsoon
Dashed it on Coromandel's sand!
Those silver bells
Reposed of yore;
As shapeless ore;
Far down in the deep…sunken wells
Of darksome mines;
In some obscure and sunless place;
Beneath huge Chimborazo's base;
Or Potosi's o'erhanging pines
And thus for thee; O little child;
Through many a danger and escape;
The tall ships passed the stormy cape;
For thee in foreign lands remote;
Beneath a burning; tropic clime;
The Indian peasant; chasing the wild goat;
Himself as swift and wild;
In falling; clutched the frail arbute;
The fibres of whose shallow root;
Uplifted from the soil; betrayed
The silver veins beneath it laid;
The buried treasures of the miser; Time。
But; lo! thy door is left ajar!
Thou hearest footsteps from afar!
And; at the sound;
Thou turnest round
With quick and questioning eyes;
Like one; who; in a foreign land;
Beholds on