venus and adonis-第6章
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For know; my heart stands armed in mine ear;
And will not let a false sound enter there;
'Lest the deceiving harmony should run
Into the quiet closure of my breast;
And then my little heart were quite undone;
In his bedchamber to be barred of rest。
No; lady; no; my heart longs not to groan;
But soundly sleeps; while now it sleeps alone。
'What have you urged that I cannot reprove?
The path is smooth that leadeth on to danger;
I hate not love; but your device in love
That lends embracements unto every stranger。
You do it for increase: O strange excuse;
When reason is the bawd to lust's abuse!
'Call it not love; for Love to heaven is fled
Since sweating Lust on earth usurped his name;
Under whose simple semblance he hath fed
Upon fresh beauty; blotting it with blame;
Which the hot tyrant stains and soon bereaves;
As caterpillars do the tender leaves。
'Love comforteth like sunshine after rain;
But Lust's effect is tempest after sun;
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain;
Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done;
Love surfeits not; Lust like a glutton dies;
Love is all truth; Lust full of forged lies。
'More I could tell; but more I dare not say;
The text is old; the orator too green。
Therefore; in sadness; now I will away;
My face is full of shame; my heart of teen:
Mine ears that to your wanton talk attended
Do burn themselves for having so offended。'
With this; he breaketh from the sweet embrace
Of those fair arms which bound him to her breast;
And homeward through the dark lawnd runs apace;
Leaves Love upon her back deeply distressed。
Look how a bright star shooteth from the sky;
So glides he in the night from Venus' eye;
Which after him she darts; as one on shore
Gazing upon a late…embarked friend;
Till the wild waves will have him seen no more;
Whose ridges with the meeting clouds contend;
So did the merciless and pitchy night
Fold in the object that did feed her sight。
Whereat amazed as one that unaware
Hath dropped a precious jewel in the flood;
Or 'stonished as night…wand'rers often are;
Their light blown out in some mistrustful wood;
Even so confounded in the dark she lay;
Having lost the fair discovery of her way。
And now she beats her heart; whereat it groans;
That all the neighbour caves; as seeming troubled;
Make verbal repetition of her moans;
Passion on passion deeply is redoubled:
'Ay me!' she cries; and twenty times; 'Woe; woe!'
And twenty echoes twenty times cry so。
She; marking them; begins a wailing note;
And sings extemporally a woeful ditty;
How love makes young men thrall; and old men dote;
How love is wise in folly; foolish witty:
Her heavy anthem still concludes in woe;
And still the choir of echoes answer so。
Her song was tedious; and outwore the night;
For lovers' hours are long; though seeming short;
If pleased themselves; others; they think; delight
In such…like circumstance; with such…like sport。
Their copious stories; oftentimes begun;
End without audience; and are never done。
For who hath she to spend the night withal
But idle sounds resembling parasites;
Like shrill…tongued tapsters answering every call;
Soothing the humour of fantastic wits?
She says ''Tis so'; they answer all ''Tis so';
And would say after her; if she said 'No'。
Lo; here the gentle lark; weary of rest;
From his moist cabinet mounts up on high;
And wakes the morning; from whose silver breast
The sun ariseth in his majesty;
Who doth the world so gloriously behold
That cedar…tops and hills seem burnished gold。
Venus salutes him with this fair good…morrow:
'O thou clear god; and patron of all light;
From whom each lamp and shining star doth borrow
The beauteous influence that makes him bright;
There lives a son that sucked an earthly mother
May lend thee light; as thou dost lend to other。'
This said; she hasteth to a myrtle grove;
Musing the morning is so much o'erworn;
And yet she hears no tidings of her love;
She hearkens for his hounds and for his horn。
Anon she hears them chant it lustily;
And all in haste she coasteth to the cry。
And as she runs; the bushes in the way
Some catch her by the neck; some kiss her face;
Some twind about her thigh to make her stay;
She wildly breaketh from their strict embrace;
Like a milch doe; whose swelling dugs do ache;
Hasting to feed her fawn hid in some brake。
By this she hears the hounds are at a bay;
Whereat she starts; like one that spies an adder
Wreathed up in fatal folds just in his way;
The fear whereof doth make him shake and shudder;
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 be