Избранная лирика - Вордсворт Уильям - Страница 57

57

THE PLAIN OF DONNERDALE

               The old inventive Poets, had they seen,                Or rather felt, the entrancement that detains                Thy waters, Duddon! 'mid these flowery plains —                The still repose, the liquid lapse serene,                Transferred to bowers imperishably green,                Had beautified Elysium! But these chains                Will soon be broken;-a rough course remains,                Rough as the past; where Thou, of placid mien,                Innocuous as a firstling of the flock,                And countenanced like a soft cerulean sky,                Shalt change thy temper; and, with many a shock                Given and received in mutual jeopardy,                Dance, like a Bacchanal, from rock to rock,                Tossing her frantic thyrsus wide and high!

ДОННЕРДЕЛЬСКАЯ ДОЛИНА[90]

                      Когда б седые барды были живы                       И видели тебя, о Деддон мой,                       Они б Элизием назвали берег твой.                       Оставил ты свой прежний вид бурливый,                       И меж цветов ползут твои извивы                       Вдоль по равнине светлою струей —                       Но, видно, чужд тенистых рощ покой                       Твоей волне свободной и шумливой.                       И ты, ягненка робкого смирней,                       Огнем небес отсвечивавший чистым,                       Вмиг забываешь тишину полей,                       Преграды рвешь в своем теченье быстром                       И, как вакханка, пляшешь средь камней,                       Неистово размахивая тирсом.

AFTER-THOUGHT

                I thought of Thee, my partner and my guide.                 As being past away. - Vain sympathies!                 For, backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes,                 I see what was, and is, and will abide;                 Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide;                 The Form remains, the Function never dies;                 While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise;                 We Men, who in our morn of youth defied                 The elements, must vanish; — be it so!                 Enough, if something from our hands have power                 To live, and act, and serve the future hour;                 And if, as toward the silent tomb we go,                 Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent                                                                dower.                 We feel that we are greater than we know.

ПРОЩАЛЬНЫЙ СОНЕТ РЕКЕ ДАДДОН[91]

                    В прощальный час, мой друг и спутник мой,                     Иду к тебе. — Напрасное влеченье!                     Я вижу, Даддон, все в твоем теченье,                     Что было, есть и будет впредь со мной.                        Ты катишь воды, вечный, озорной,                        Даруешь вечно жизнь и обновленье,                        А мы — мы сила, мудрость, устремленье,                        Мы с юных лет зовем стихии в бой,                     И все-таки мы смертны. — Да свершится!                     Но не обижен, кто хоть малый срок                     Своим трудом служить потомству мог,                        Кто и тогда, когда близка гробница,                        Любовь, Надежду, Веру — все сберег.                        Не выше ль он, чем смертным это мнится!

THE PILGRIM'S DREAM

                    A Pilgrim, when the summer day                     Had closed upon his weary way,                     A lodging begged beneath a castle's roof;                     But him the haughty Warder spurned;                     And from the gate the Pilgrim turned,                     To seek such covert as the field                     Or heath-besprinkled copse might yield,                     Or lofty wood, shower-proof.                     He paced along; and, pensively,                     Halting beneath a shady tree,                     Whose moss-grown root might serve for couch or seat,                     Fixed on a Star his upward eye;                     Then, from the tenant of the sky                     He turned, and watched with kindred look,                     A Glow-worm, in a dusky nook,                     Apparent at his feet.                     The murmur of a neighbouring stream                     Induced a soft and slumbrous dream,                     A pregnant dream, within whose shadowy bounds                     He recognised the earth-born Star,                     And _That_ which glittered from afar;                     And (strange to witness!) from the frame                     Of the ethereal Orb, there came                     Intelligible sounds.                     Much did it taunt the humble Light                     That now, when day was fled, and night                     Hushed the dark earth, fast closing weary eyes,                     A very reptile could presume                     To show her taper in the gloom,                     As if in rivalship with One                     Who sate a ruler on his throne                     Erected in the skies.                     "Exalted Star!" the Worm replied,                     "Abate this unbecoming pride,                     Or with a less uneasy lustre shine;                     Thou shrink'st as momently thy rays                     Are mastered by the breathing haze;                     While neither mist, nor thickest cloud                     That shapes in heaven its murky shroud,                     Hath power to injure mine.                     But not for this do I aspire                     To match the spark of local fire,                     That at my will burns on the dewy lawn,                     With thy acknowledged glories;-No!                     Yet, thus upbraided, I may show                     What favours do attend me here,                     Till, like thyself, I disappear                     Before the purple dawn."                     When this in modest guise was said,                     Across the welkin seemed to spread                     A boding sound-for aught but sleep unfit!                     Hills quaked, the rivers backward ran;                     That Star, so proud of late, looked wan;                     And reeled with visionary stir                     In the blue depth, like Lucifer                     Cast headlong to the pit!                     Fire raged: and, when the spangled floor                     Of ancient ether was no more,                     New heavens succeeded, by the dream brought forth:                     And all the happy Souls that rode                     Transfigured through that fresh abode,                     Had heretofore, in humble trust,                     Shone meekly 'mid their native dust,                     The Glow-worms of the earth!                     This knowledge, from an Angel's voice                     Proceeding, made the heart rejoice                     Of Him who slept upon the open lea:                     Waking at morn he murmured not;                     And, till life's journey closed, the spot                     Was to the Pilgrim's soul endeared,                     Where by that dream he had been cheered                     Beneath the shady tree.