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an anthology of australian verse-第15章

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    How did it go?

    Only we know;

    Sing it; sweetheart; to…night;

    As you did long ago。









James Lister Cuthbertson。







  Australia Federata





Australia! land of lonely lake

 And serpent…haunted fen;

Land of the torrent and the fire

 And forest…sundered men:

Thou art not now as thou shalt be

 When the stern invaders come;

In the hush before the hurricane;

 The dread before the drum。



A louder thunder shall be heard

 Than echoes on thy shore;

When o'er the blackened basalt cliffs

 The foreign cannon roar 

When the stand is made in the sheoaks' shade

 When heroes fall for thee;

And the creeks in gloomy gullies run

 Dark crimson to the sea:



When under honeysuckles gray;

 And wattles' swaying gold;

The stalwart arm may strike no more;

 The valiant heart is cold 

When thou shalt know the agony;

 The fever; and the strife

Of those who wrestle against odds

 For liberty and life:



Then is the great Dominion born;

 The seven sisters bound;

From Sydney's greenly wooded port

 To lone King George's Sound 

Then shall the islands of the south;

 The lands of bloom and snow;

Forth from their isolation come

 To meet the common foe。



Then; only then  when after war

 Is peace with honour born;

When from the bosom of the night

 Comes golden…sandalled morn;

When laurelled victory is thine;

 And the day of battle done;

Shall the heart of a mighty people stir;

 And Australia be as one。







  At Cape Schanck





Down to the lighthouse pillar

 The rolling woodland comes;

Gay with the gold of she…oaks

 And the green of the stunted gums;

With the silver…grey of honeysuckle;

 With the wasted bracken red;

With a tuft of softest emerald

 And a cloud…flecked sky o'erhead。



We climbed by ridge and boulder;

 Umber and yellow scarred;

Out to the utmost precipice;

 To the point that was ocean…barred;

Till we looked below on the fastness

 Of the breeding eagle's nest;

And Cape Wollomai opened eastward

 And the Otway on the west。



Over the mirror of azure

 The purple shadows crept;

League upon league of rollers

 Landward evermore swept;

And burst upon gleaming basalt;

 And foamed in cranny and crack;

And mounted in sheets of silver;

 And hurried reluctant back。



And the sea; so calm out yonder;

 Wherever we turned our eyes;

Like the blast of an angel's trumpet

 Rang out to the earth and skies;

Till the reefs and the rocky ramparts

 Throbbed to the giant fray;

And the gullies and jutting headlands

 Were bathed in a misty spray。



Oh; sweet in the distant ranges;

 To the ear of inland men;

Is the ripple of falling water

 In sassafras…haunted glen;

The stir in the ripening cornfield

 That gently rustles and swells;

The wind in the wattle sighing;

 The tinkle of cattle bells。



But best is the voice of ocean;

 That strikes to the heart and brain;

That lulls with its passionate music

 Trouble and grief and pain;

That murmurs the requiem sweetest

 For those who have loved and lost;

And thunders a jubilant anthem

 To brave hearts tempest…tossed。



That takes to its boundless bosom

 The burden of all our care;

That whispers of sorrow vanquished;

 Of hours that may yet be fair;

That tells of a Harbour of Refuge

 Beyond life's stormy straits;

Of an infinite peace that gladdens;

 Of an infinite love that waits。







  Wattle and Myrtle





Gold of the tangled wilderness of wattle;

 Break in the lone green hollows of the hills;

Flame on the iron headlands of the ocean;

 Gleam on the margin of the hurrying rills。



Come with thy saffron diadem and scatter

 Odours of Araby that haunt the air;

Queen of our woodland; rival of the roses;

 Spring in the yellow tresses of thy hair。



Surely the old gods; dwellers on Olympus;

 Under thy shining loveliness have strayed;

Crowned with thy clusters; magical Apollo;

 Pan with his reedy music may have played。



Surely within thy fastness; Aphrodite;

 She of the sea…ways; fallen from above;

Wandered beneath thy canopy of blossom;

 Nothing disdainful of a mortal's love。



Aye; and Her sweet breath lingers on the wattle;

 Aye; and Her myrtle dominates the glade;

And with a deep and perilous enchantment

 Melts in the heart of lover and of maid。







  The Australian Sunrise





The Morning Star paled slowly; the Cross hung low to the sea;

And down the shadowy reaches the tide came swirling free;

The lustrous purple blackness of the soft Australian night;

Waned in the gray awakening that heralded the light;

Still in the dying darkness; still in the forest dim

The pearly dew of the dawning clung to each giant limb;

Till the sun came up from ocean; red with the cold sea mist;

And smote on the limestone ridges; and the shining tree…tops kissed;

Then the fiery Scorpion vanished; the magpie's note was heard;

And the wind in the she…oak wavered; and the honeysuckles stirred;

The airy golden vapour rose from the river breast;

The kingfisher came darting out of his crannied nest;

And the bulrushes and reed…beds put off their sallow gray

And burnt with cloudy crimson at dawning of the day。









John Farrell。







  Australia to England



      June 22nd; 1897





What of the years of Englishmen?

 What have they brought of growth and grace

Since mud…built London by its fen

 Became the Briton's breeding…place?

What of the Village; where our blood

 Was brewed by sires; half man; half brute;

In vessels of wild womanhood;

 From blood of Saxon; Celt and Jute?



What are its gifts; this Harvest Home

 Of English tilth and English cost;

Where fell the hamlet won by Rome

 And rose the city that she lost?

O! terrible and grand and strange

 Beyond all phantasy that gleams

When Hope; asleep; sees radiant Change

 Come to her through the halls of dreams!



A heaving sea of life; that beats

 Like England's heart of pride to…day;

And up from roaring miles of streets

 Flings on the roofs its human spray;

And fluttering miles of flags aflow;

 And cannon's voice; and boom of bell;

And seas of fire to…night; as though

 A hundred cities flamed and fell;



While; under many a fair festoon

 And flowering crescent; set ablaze

With all the dyes that English June

 Can lend to deck a day of days;

And past where mart and palace rise;

 And shrine and temple lift their spears;

Below five million misted eyes

 Goes a grey Queen of Sixty Years 



Go lords; and servants of the lords

 Of earth; with homage on their lips;

And kinsmen carrying English swords;

 And offering England battle…ships;

And tribute…payers; on whose hands

 Their English fetters scarce appear;

And gathered round from utmost lands

 Ambassadors of Love and Fear!



Dim signs of greeting waved afar;

 Far trumpets blown and flags unfurled;

And England's name an Avatar

 Of light and sound throughout the world 

Hailed Empress among nations; Queen

 Enthroned in solemn majesty;

On splendid proofs of what has been;

 And presages of what will be!



For this your sons; foreseeing not

 Or heeding not; the aftermath;

Because their strenuous hearts were hot

 Went first on many a cruel path;

And; trusting first and last to blows;

 Fed death with such as would gainsay

Their instant passing; or oppose

 With talk of Right strength's right of way!



For this their names are on the stone

 Of mountain spires; and carven trees

That stand in flickering wastes unknown

 Wait with their dying messages;

When fire blasts dance with desert drifts

 The English bones show white below;

And; not so white; when summer lifts

 The counterpane of Yukon's snow。



Condemned by blood to reach for grapes

 That hang in sight; however high;

Beyond the smoke of Asian capes;

 The nameless; dauntless; dead one

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