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helen of troy and other poems-第2章

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There was no evil hidden in my life;

And yet; and yet; I would not have them know 



Am I not floating in a mist of light?

O lift me up and I shall reach the sun!









Sappho







The twilight's inner flame grows blue and deep;

And in my Lesbos; over leagues of sea;

The temples glimmer moonwise in the trees。

Twilight has veiled the little flower face

Here on my heart; but still the night is kind

And leaves her warm sweet weight against my breast。

Am I that Sappho who would run at dusk

Along the surges creeping up the shore

When tides came in to ease the hungry beach;

And running; running; till the night was black;

Would fall forespent upon the chilly sand

And quiver with the winds from off the sea?

Ah; quietly the shingle waits the tides

Whose waves are stinging kisses; but to me

Love brought no peace; nor darkness any rest。

I crept and touched the foam with fevered hands

And cried to Love; from whom the sea is sweet;

From whom the sea is bitterer than death。

Ah; Aphrodite; if I sing no more

To thee; God's daughter; powerful as God;

It is that thou hast made my life too sweet

To hold the added sweetness of a song。

There is a quiet at the heart of love;

And I have pierced the pain and come to peace。

I hold my peace; my Cleis; on my heart;

And softer than a little wild bird's wing

Are kisses that she pours upon my mouth。

Ah; never any more when spring like fire

Will flicker in the newly opened leaves;

Shall I steal forth to seek for solitude

Beyond the lure of light Alcaeus' lyre;

Beyond the sob that stilled Erinna's voice。

Ah; never with a throat that aches with song;

Beneath the white uncaring sky of spring;

Shall I go forth to hide awhile from Love

The quiver and the crying of my heart。

Still I remember how I strove to flee

The love…note of the birds; and bowed my head

To hurry faster; but upon the ground

I saw two winged shadows side by side;

And all the world's spring passion stifled me。

Ah; Love; there is no fleeing from thy might;

No lonely place where thou hast never trod;

No desert thou hast left uncarpeted

With flowers that spring beneath thy perfect feet。

In many guises didst thou come to me;

I saw thee by the maidens while they danced;

Phaon allured me with a look of thine;

In Anactoria I knew thy grace;

I looked at Cercolas and saw thine eyes;

But never wholly; soul and body mine;

Didst thou bid any love me as I loved。

Now I have found the peace that fled from me;

Close; close; against my heart I hold my world。

Ah; Love that made my life a lyric cry;

Ah; Love that tuned my lips to lyres of thine;

I taught the world thy music; now alone

I sing for one who falls asleep to hear。









Marianna Alcoforando



(The Portuguese Nun  1640…1723)







The sparrows wake beneath the convent eaves;

I think I have not slept the whole night through。

But I am old; the aged scarcely know

The times they wake and sleep; for life burns down;

They breathe the calm of death before they die。

The long night ends; the day comes creeping in;

Showing the sorrows that the darkness hid;

The bended head of Christ; the blood; the thorns;

The wall's gray stains of damp; the pallet bed

Where little Sister Marta dreams of saints;

Waking with arms outstretched imploringly

That seek to stay a vision's vanishing。

I never had a vision; yet for me

Our Lady smiled while all the convent slept

One winter midnight hushed around with snow 

I thought she might be kinder than the rest;

And so I came to kneel before her feet;

Sick with love's sorrow and love's bitterness。

But when I would have made the blessed sign;

I found the water frozen in the font;

And touched but ice within the carved stone。

The saints had hid themselves away from me;

Leaving the windows black against the night;

And when I sank upon the altar steps;

Before the Virgin Mother and her Child;

The last; pale; low…burnt taper flickered out;

But in the darkness; smooth and fathomless;

Still twinkled like a star the holy lamp

That cast a dusky glow upon her face。

Then through the numbing cold peace fell on me;

Submission and the gracious gift of tears;

For when I looked; Oh! blessed miracle;

Her lips had parted and Our Lady smiled!

And then I knew that Love is worth its pain

And that my heart was richer for his sake;

Since lack of love is bitterest of all。



The day is broad awake  the first long beam

Of level sun finds Sister Marta's face;

And trembling there it lights a timid smile

Upon the lips that say so many prayers;

And have no words for hate and none for love。

But when she passes where her prayers have gone;

Will God not smile a little sadly then;

And send her back with gentle words to earth

That she may hold a child against her breast

And feel its little hands upon her hair?

We weep before the Blessed Mother's shrine;

To think upon her sorrows; but her joys

What nun could ever know a tithing of?

The precious hours she watched above His sleep

Were worth the fearful anguish of the end。

Yea; lack of love is bitterest of all;

Yet I have felt what thing it is to know

One thought forever; sleeping or awake;

To say one name whose sweetness grows so strange

That it might work a spell on those who weep;

To feel the weight of love upon my heart

So heavy that the blood can scarcely flow。

Love comes to some unlooked…for; quietly;

As when at twilight; with a soft surprise;

We see the new…born crescent in the blue;

And unto others love is planet…like;

A cold and placid gleam that wavers not;

And there are those who wait the call of love

Expectant of his coming; as we watch

To see the east grow pallid ere the moon

Lifts up her flower…like head against the night。

Love came to me as comes a cruel sun;

That on some rain…drenched morning; when the leaves

Are bowed beneath their clinging weight of drops;

Tears through the mist; and burns with fervent heat

The tender grasses and the meadow flowers;

Then suddenly the heavy clouds close in

And through the dark the thunder's muttering

Is drowned amid the dashing of the rain。



But I have seen my day grow calm again。

The sun sets slowly on a peaceful world;

And sheds a quiet light across the fields。









Guenevere







I was a queen; and I have lost my crown;

A wife; and I have broken all my vows;

A lover; and I ruined him I loved: 

There is no other havoc left to do。

A little month ago I was a queen;

And mothers held their babies up to see

When I came riding out of Camelot。

The women smiled; and all the world smiled too。

And now; what woman's eyes would smile on me?

I still am beautiful; and yet what child

Would think of me as some high; heaven…sent thing;

An angel; clad in gold and miniver?

The world would run from me; and yet am I

No different from the queen they used to love。

If water; flowing silver over stones;

Is forded; and beneath the horses' feet

Grows turbid suddenly; it clears again;

And men will drink it with no thought of harm。

Yet I am branded for a single fault。



I was the flower amid a toiling world;

Where people smiled to see one happy thing;

And they were proud and glad to raise me high;

They only asked that I should be right fair;

A little kind; and gowned wondrously;

And surely it were little praise to me

If I had pleased them well throughout my life。



I was a queen; the daughter of a king。

The crown was never heavy on my head;

It was my right; and was a part of me。

The women thought me proud; the men were kind;

And bowed right gallantly to kiss my hand;

And watched me as I passed them calmly by;

Along the halls I shall not tread again。

What if; to…night; I should revisit them?

The warders at the gates; the kitchen…maids;

The very beggars would stand off from me;

And I; their queen; would climb the stairs alone;

Pass through the banquet…hall; a loathe

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