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第2章

a reading of life-第2章

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We dolorous complainers had a dream;

Wrought on the vacant air from inner fire;

We saw stand bare of her celestial beam

The glorious Goddess; and we dared desire。



Thereat are shown reproachful eyes; and lips

Of upward curl to meanings half obscure;

And glancing where a wood…nymph lightly skips

She nods:  at once that creature wears her lure。

Blush of our being between birth and death:

Sob of our ripened blood for its next breath:

Her wily semblance nought of her denies;

Seems it the Goddess runs; the Goddess hies;

The generous Goddess yields。  And she can arm

Her dwarfed and twisted with her secret charm;

Benevolent as Earth to feed her own。

Fully shall they be fed; if they beseech。

But scorn she has for them that walk alone;

Blanched men; starved women; whom no arts can pleach。

The men as chief of criminals she disdains;

And holds the reason in perceptive thought。

More pitiable; like rivers lacking rains;

Kissing cold stones; the women shrink for drought。

Those faceless discords; out of nature strayed;

Rank of the putrefaction ere decayed;

In impious singles bear the thorny wreaths:

Their lives are where harmonious Pleasure breathes

For couples crowned with flowers that burn in dew。

Comes there a tremor of night's forest horn

Across her garden from the insaner crew;

She darkens to malignity of scorn。

A shiver courses through her garden…grounds:

Grunt of the tusky boar; the baying hounds;

The hunter's shouts; are heard afar; and bring

Dead on her heart her crimsoned flower of Spring。

These; the irreverent of Life's design;

Division between natural and divine

Would cast; these vaunting barrenness for best;

In veins of gathered strength Life's tide arrest;

And these because the roses flood their cheeks;

Vow them in nature wise as when Love speaks。

With them is war; and well the Goddess knows

What undermines the race who mount the rose;

How the ripe moment; lodged in slumberous hours;

Enkindled by persuasion overpowers:

Why weak as are her frailer trailing weeds;

The strong when Beauty gleams o'er Nature's needs;

And timely guile unguarded finds them lie。

They who her sway withstand a sea defy;

At every point of juncture must be proof;

Nor look for mercy from the incessant surge

Her forces mixed of craft and passion urge

For the one whelming wave to spring aloof。

She; tenderness; is pitiless to them

Resisting in her godhead nature's truth。

No flower their face shall be; but writhen stem;

Their youth a frost; their age the dirge for youth。

These miserably disinclined;

The lamentably unembraced;

Insult the Pleasures Earth designed

To people and beflower the waste。

Wherefore the Pleasures pass them by:

For death they live; in life they die。



Her head the Goddess from them turns;

As from grey mounds of ashes in bronze urns。

She views her quivering couples unconsoled;

And of her beauty mirror they become;

Like orchard blossoms; apple; pear and plum;

Free of the cloud; beneath the flood of gold。

Crowned with wreaths that burn in dew;

Her couples whirl; sun…satiated;

Athirst for shade; they sigh; they wed;

They play the music made of two:

Oldest of earth; earth's youngest till earth's end:

Cunninger than the numbered strings;

For melodies; for harmonies;

For mastered discords; and the things

Not vocable; whose mysteries

Are inmost Love's; Life's reach of Life extend。



Is it an anguish overflowing shame

And the tongue's pudency confides to her;

With eyes of embers; breath of incense myrrh;

The woman's marrow in some dear youth's name;

Then is the Goddess tenderness

Maternal; and she has a sister's tones

Benign to soothe intemperate distress;

Divide despair from hope; and sighs from moans。

Her gentleness imparts exhaling ease

To those of her milk…bearer votaries

As warm of bosom…earth as she; of the source

Direct; erratic but in heart's excess;

Being mortal and ill…matched for Love's great force;

Like green leaves caught with flames by his impress。

And pray they under skies less overcast;

That swiftly may her star of eve descend;

Her lustrous morning star fly not too fast;

To lengthen blissful night will she befriend。



Unfailing her reply to woman's voice

In supplication instant。  Is it man's;

She hears; approves his words; her garden scans;

And him:  the flowers are various; he has choice。

Perchance his wound is deep; she listens long;

Enjoys what music fills the plaintive song;

And marks how he; who would be hawk at poise

Above the bird; his plaintive song enjoys。



She reads him when his humbled manhood weeps

To her invoked:  distraction is implored。

A smile; and he is up on godlike leaps

Above; with his bright Goddess owned the adored。

His tales of her declare she condescends;

Can share his fires; not always goads and rends:

Moreover; quits a throne; and must enclose

A queenlier gem than woman's wayside rose。

She bends; he quickens; she breathes low; he springs

Enraptured; low she laughs; his woes disperse;

Aloud she laughs and sweeps his varied strings。

'Tis taught him how for touch of mournful verse


Rarely the music made of two ascends;

And Beauty's Queen some other way is won。

Or it may solve the riddle; that she lends

Herself to all; and yields herself to none;

Save heavenliest:  though claims by men are raised

In hot assurance under shade of doubt:

And numerous are the images bepraised

As Beauty's Queen; should passion head the rout。



Be sure the ruddy hue is Love's:  to woo

Love's Fountain we must mount the ruddy hue。

That is her garden's precept; seen where shines

Her blood…flower; and its unsought neighbour pines。

Daughter of light; the joyful light;

She bids her couples face full East;

Reflecting radiance; even when from her feast

Their outstretched arms brown deserts disunite;

The lion…haunted thickets hold apart。

In love the ruddy hue declares great heart;

High confidence in her whose aid is lent

To lovers lifting the tuned instrument;

Not one of rippled strings and funeral tone。

And doth the man pursue a tightened zone;

Then be it as the Laurel God he runs;

Confirmed to win; with countenance the Sun's。



Should pity bless the tremulous voice of woe

He lifts for pity; limp his offspring show。

For him requiring woman's arts to please

Infantile tastes with babe reluctances;

No race of giants!  In the woman's veins

Persuasion ripely runs; through hers the pains。

Her choice of him; should kind occasion nod;

Aspiring blends the Titan with the God;

Yet unto dwarf and mortal; she; submiss

In her high Lady's mandate; yields the kiss;

And is it needed that Love's daintier brute

Be snared as hunter; she will tempt pursuit。

She is great Nature's ever intimate

In breast; and doth as ready handmaid wait;

Until perverted by her senseless male;

She plays the winding snake; the shrinking snail;

The flying deer; all tricks of evil fame;

Elusive to allure; since he grew tame。



Hence has the Goddess; Nature's earliest Power;

And greatest and most present; with her dower

Of the transcendent beauty; gained repute

For meditated guile。  She laughs to hear

A charge her garden's labyrinths scarce confute;

Her garden's histories tell of to all near。

Let it be said; But less upon her guile

Doth she rely for her immortal smile。

Still let the rumour spread; and terror screens

To push her conquests by the simplest means。

While man abjures not lustihead; nor swerves

From earth's good labours; Beauty's Queen he serves。



Her spacious garden and her garden's grant

She offers in reward for handsome cheer:

Choice of the nymphs whose looks will slant

The secret down a dewy leer

Of corner eyelids into haze:

Many a fair Aphrosyne

Like flower…bell to honey…bee:

And here they flicker round the maze

Bewildering him in heart and head:

And here they wear the close demure;

With subtle peeps to reassure:

Others parad

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