second april-第6章
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And the withering tongue
Chastened; do your weeping now。
Sing whatever songs are sung;
Wind whatever wreath;
For a playmate perished young;
For a spirit spent in death。
Boys and girls that held her dear;
All you loved of her lies here。
SONNETS
I
We talk of taxes; and I call you friend;
Well; such you are;but well enough we know
How thick about us root; how rankly grow
Those subtle weeds no man has need to tend;
That flourish through neglect; and soon must send
Perfume too sweet upon us and overthrow
Our steady senses; how such matters go
We are aware; and how such matters end。
Yet shall be told no meagre passion here;
With lovers such as we forevermore
Isolde drinks the draught; and Guinevere
Receives the Table's ruin through her door;
Francesca; with the loud surf at her ear;
Lets fall the colored book upon the floor。
II
Into the golden vessel of great song
Let us pour all our passion; breast to breast
Let other lovers lie; in love and rest;
Not we;articulate; so; but with the tongue
Of all the world: the churning blood; the long
Shuddering quiet; the desperate hot palms pressed
Sharply together upon the escaping guest;
The common soul; unguarded; and grown strong。
Longing alone is singer to the lute;
Let still on nettles in the open sigh
The minstrel; that in slumber is as mute
As any man; and love be far and high;
That else forsakes the topmost branch; a fruit
Found on the ground by every passer…by。
III
Not with libations; but with shouts and laughter
We drenched the altars of Love's sacred grove;
Shaking to earth green fruits; impatient after
The launching of the colored moths of Love。
Love's proper myrtle and his mother's zone
We bound about our irreligious brows;
And fettered him with garlands of our own;
And spread a banquet in his frugal house。
Not yet the god has spoken; but I fear
Though we should break our bodies in his flame;
And pour our blood upon his altar; here
Henceforward is a grove without a name;
A pasture to the shaggy goats of Pan;
Whence flee forever a woman and a man。
IV
Only until this cigarette is ended;
A little moment at the end of all;
While on the floor the quiet ashes fall;
And in the firelight to a lance extended;
Bizarrely with the jazzing music blended;
The broken shadow dances on the wall;
I will permit my memory to recall
The vision of you; by all my dreams attended。
And then adieu;farewell!the dream is done。
Yours is a face of which I can forget
The color and the features; every one;
The words not ever; and the smiles not yet;
But in your day this moment is the sun
Upon a hill; after the sun has set。
V
Once more into my arid days like dew;
Like wind from an oasis; or the sound
Of cold sweet water bubbling underground;
A treacherous messenger; the thought of you
Comes to destroy me; once more I renew
Firm faith in your abundance; whom I found
Long since to be but just one other mound
Of sand; whereon no green thing ever grew。
And once again; and wiser in no wise;
I chase your colored phantom on the air;
And sob and curse and fall and weep and rise
And stumble pitifully on to where;
Miserable and lost; with stinging eyes;
Once more I clasp;and there is nothing there。
VI
No rose that in a garden ever grew;
In Homer's or in Omar's or in mine;
Though buried under centuries of fine
Dead dust of roses; shut from sun and dew
Forever; and forever lost from view;
But must again in fragrance rich as wine
The grey aisles of the air incarnadine
When the old summers surge into a new。
Thus when I swear; 〃I love with all my heart;〃
'Tis with the heart of Lilith that I swear;
'Tis with the love of Lesbia and Lucrece;
And thus as well my love must lose some part
Of what it is; had Helen been less fair;
Or perished young; or stayed at home in Greece。
VII
When I too long have looked upon your face;
Wherein for me a brightness unobscured
Save by the mists of brightness has its place;
And terrible beauty not to be endured;
I turn away reluctant from your light;
And stand irresolute; a mind undone;
A silly; dazzled thing deprived of sight
From having looked too long upon the sun。
Then is my daily life a narrow room
In which a little while; uncertainly;
Surrounded by impenetrable gloom;
Among familiar things grown strange to me
Making my way; I pause; and feel; and hark;
Till I become accustomed to the dark。
VIII
And you as well must die; beloved dust;
And all your beauty stand you in no stead;
This flawless; vital hand; this perfect head;
This body of flame and steel; before the gust
Of Death; or under his autumnal frost;
Shall be as any leaf; be no less dead
Than the first leaf that fell;this wonder fled。
Altered; estranged; disintegrated; lost。
Nor shall my love avail you in your hour。
In spite of all my love; you will arise
Upon that day and wander down the air
Obscurely as the unattended flower;
It mattering not how beautiful you were;
Or how beloved above all else that dies。
IX
Let you not say of me when I am old;
In pretty worship of my withered hands
Forgetting who I am; and how the sands
Of such a life as mine run red and gold
Even to the ultimate sifting dust; 〃Behold;
Here walketh passionless age!〃for there expands
A curious superstition in these lands;
And by its leave some weightless tales are told。
In me no lenten wicks watch out the night;
I am the booth where Folly holds her fair;
Impious no less in ruin than in strength;
When I lie crumbled to the earth at length;
Let you not say; 〃Upon this reverend site
The righteous groaned and beat their breasts in prayer。〃
X
Oh; my beloved; have you thought of this:
How in the years to come unscrupulous Time;
More cruel than Death; will tear you from my kiss;
And make you old; and leave me in my prime?
How you and I; who scale together yet
A little while the sweet; immortal height
No pilgrim may remember or forget;
As sure as the world turns; some granite night
Shall lie awake and know the gracious flame
Gone out forever on the mutual stone;
And call to mind that on the day you came
I was a child; and you a hero grown?
And the night pass; and the strange morning break
Upon our anguish for each other's sake!
XI
As to some lovely temple; tenantless
Long since; that once was sweet with shivering brass;
Knowing well its altars ruined and the grass
Grown up between the stones; yet from excess
Of grief hard driven; or great loneliness;
The worshiper returns; and those who pass
Marvel him crying on a name that was;
So is it now with me in my distress。
Your body was a temple to Delight;
Cold are its ashes whence the breath is fled;
Yet here one time your spirit was wont to move;
Here might I hope to find you day or night;
And here I come to look for you; my love;
Even now; foolishly; knowing you are dead。
XII
Cherish you then the hope I shall forget
At length; my lord; Pieria?put away
For your so passing sake; this mouth of clay
These mortal bones against my body set;
For all the puny fever and frail sweat
Of human love;renounce for these; I say;
The Singing Mountain's memory; and betray
The silent lyre that hangs upon me yet?
Ah; but indeed; some day shall you awake;
Rather; from dreams of me; that at your side
So many nights; a lover and a bride;
But stern in my soul's chastity; have lain;
To walk the world forever for my sake;
And in each chamber find me gone again!
WILD SWANS
I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over。
And what did I see I had not seen before?
Only a question less or a question more;
Nothing to match the flight of wild birds flying。
Tiresome heart; forever living and dying;
House witho