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По Э. А. Лирика.
Мн.: Харвест, 1999.
ISBN 985-433-680-8.
OCR Бычков М.Н. mailto:bmn@lib.ru
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I saw thee on thy bridal day -
When a burning blush came o'er thee,
Though happiness around thee lay,
The world a'l love before thee:
And in thine eye a kindling light
(Whatever it might be)
Was all on Earth my aching sight
Of Loveliness could see.
That blush, perhaps, was maiden shame -
As such it well may pass -
Though its glow hath raised a fiercer flame
In the breast of him, alas!
Who saw thee on that bridal day,
When that deep blush would come o'er thee,
Though happiness around thee lay,
The world all love before thee.
(1827-1845)
Я помню: ты в день брачный твой,
Как от стыда зарделась вдруг,
Хоть счастье было пред тобой,
И, весь любовь, мир цвел вокруг.
Лучистый блеск в твоих очах
(Что ни таила ты)
Был - все, что на земле, в мечтах,
Есть выше красоты!
Быть может, девичьим стыдом
Румянец был - как знать! -
Но пламенем он вспыхнул в том,
Кто мог его понять,
Кто знал тебя в день брачный твой,
Когда могла ты вспыхнуть вдруг,
Хоть счастье было пред тобой,
И, весь любовь, мир цвел вокруг.
(1924)
Перевод В. Брюсова
Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!
My spirit not awak'ning till the beam
Of an Eternity should bring the morrow:
Yes! tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,
'Twere better than the dull reality
Of waking life to him whose heart shall be,
And hath been ever, on the chilly earth,
A chaos of deep passion from his birth!
But should it be - that dream eternally
Continuing - as dreams have been to me
In my young boyhood - should it thus be given,
'Twere folly still to hope for higher Heaven!
For I have revell'd, when the sun was bright
In the summer sky; in dreamy fields of light,
And left unheedingly my very heart
In climes of mine imagining - apart
From mine own home, with beings that have been
Of mine own thought - what more could I have seen?
'Twas once and _only_ once and the wild hour
From my remembrance shall not pass - some power
Or spell had bound me - 'twas the chilly wind
Came o'er me in the night and left behind
Its image on my spirit, or the moon
Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon
Too coldly - or the stars - howe'er it was
That dream was as that night wind - let it pass.
I have been happy - tho' but in a dream.
I have been happy - and I love the theme -
Dreams! in their vivid colouring of life -
As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife
Of semblance with reality which brings
To the delirious eye more lovely things
Of Paradise and Love - and all our own!
Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.
(1827-1828)
О! будь вся юность - лишь единый сон,
Так, чтобы дух проснулся, пробужден
Лучами Вечности, как мы - денницы,
Будь этот сон - страданье без границы, -
Его все ж предпочел бы, чем коснеть
В реальности, тот, кто привык терпеть,
Чье сердце было и пребудет страстно -
Мук хаосом здесь, на земле прекрасной!
Но был ли б этот, в долгой темноте
Прошедший, сон похож на грезы те,
Какими в детстве был я счастлив? - (Ибо
Небес прекрасней ждать сны не могли бы!)
При летнем солнце я тонул в мечтах
О Красоте и о живых лучах;
Я сердце отдал, с жаром неустанным,
Моей фантазии далеким странам
И существам, что сотворил я сам...
Что, большее, могло предстать мечтам?
То было раз, - лишь раз, - но из сознанья
Не выйдет этот миг! - Очарованье
Иль чья-то власть гнели меня; льдяной
Во тьме дышал ли ветер надо мной,
В моем уме свой облик оставляя?
Луна ль звала, над сном моим пылая,
Холодной слишком? - звезды ль? - только тот,
Миг был как ветер ночи (да пройдет!),
Я счастлив был - пусть в грезах сна пустого!
Я счастлив был - в мечтах! - Люблю я слово
"Мечта"! В ее стоцветной ворожбе,
Как в мутной, зыбкой, призрачной борьбе
С реальностью видений, той, что вещий
Бред создает, - прекраснейшие вещи
Любви и рая есть, что мне сродни,
Но чем не дарят юношества дни!
(1924)
Перевод В. Брюсова
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow -
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less _gone?_
_All_ that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand -
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep - while I weep!
О God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
О God! can I not save
_One from_ the pitiless wave?
Is _all_ that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
(1827-1849)
Пусть останется с тобой
Поцелуй прощальный мой!
От тебя я ухожу,
И тебе теперь скажу:
Не ошиблась ты в одном, -
Жизнь моя была лишь сном.
Но мечта, что сном жила,
Днем ли, ночью ли ушла,
Как виденье ли, как свет,
Чт_о_ мне в том, - ее уж _нет_.
_Все_, что зрится, мнится мне,
Все есть только сон во сне.
Я стою на берегу,
Бурю взором стерегу.
И держу в руках своих
Горсть песчинок золотых.
Как они ласкают взгляд!
Как их мало! Как скользят
Все - меж пальцев - вниз, к волне,
К глубине - на горе мне!
Как их бег мне задержать,
Как сильнее руки сжать?
Сохранится ль хоть одна,
Или все возьмет волна?
Или то, что зримо мне,
Все есть только сон во сне?
(1901)
Перевод К. Бальмонта
In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed -
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream - that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar -
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?
(1827-1845)
В виденьях темноты ночной
Мне снились радости, что были;
Но грезы жизни, сон денной,
Мне сжали сердце - и разбили.
О, почему не правда дня -
Сны ночи тем, чей взгляд
В лучах небесного огня
Былое видеть рад!
О сон святой! - о сон святой! -
Шум просыпался в мире тесном,
Но в жизнь я шел, ведом тобой,
Как некий дух лучом чудесным.
Пусть этот луч меж туч, сквозь муть,
Трепещет иногда, -
Что ярче озарит нам путь,
Чем Истины звезда!
(1924)
Перевод В. Брюсова
The happiest day - the happiest hour
My sear'd and blighted heart hath known,
The highest hope of pride, and power,
I feel hath flown.
Of power! said I? Yes! such I ween
But they have vanish'd long alas!
The visions of my youth have been -
But let them pass.
And, pride, what have I now with thee?
Another brow may ev'n inherit
The venom thou hast pour'd on me -
Be still my spirit.
The happiest day - the happiest hour
Mine eyes shall see - have ever seen
The brightest glance of pride and power
I feel - have been:
But were that hope of pride and power
Now offer'd, with the pain
Ev'n then I felt - that brightest hour
I would not live again:
For on its wing was dark alloy
And as it flutter'd - fell
An essence - powerful to destroy
A soul that knew it well.
(1827)
Счастливейший день! - счастливейший час! -
Что сердце усталое знало!
Вы, гордые грезы! надежды на власть!
Все, все миновало.
Надежды на власть! - Да! я помню: об том
(Мне память былое приводит)
Мечтал я когда-то во сне молодом...
Но пусть их проходят!
И гордые грезы? - Теперь мне - что в них!
Пусть яд их был мною усвоен,
Но пусть он палит ныне темя других.
Мой дух! будь спокоен.
Счастливейший день! - счастливейший час! -
Что сердце усталое знало,
Вы, гордые взгляды! вы, взгляды на власть!
Все, все миновало.
Но если бы снова и взяли вы верх,
Но с бредом мученья былого, -
Вас, миги надежд, я отверг бы, отверг,
Чтоб не мучиться снова!
Летите вы с пеньем, но гибель и страх
Змеится, как отблеск, по перьям,
И каплет с них яд, сожигающий в прах
Того, кто вас принял с доверьем.
(1924)
Перевод В. Брюсова
In spring of youth it was my lot
To haunt of the wide world a spot
The which I could not love the less -
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that towered around.
But when the Night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot, as upon all,
And the mystic wind went by
Murmuring in melody -
Then - ah then I would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.
Yet that terror was not fright,
But a tremulous delight -
A feeling not the jewelled mine
Could teach or bribe me to define -
Nor Love - although the Love were thine.
Death was in that poisonous wave,
And in its gulf a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his lone imagining -
Whose solitary soul could make
An Eden of that dim lake.
(1827-1845)
К ***
Меня, на утре жизни, влек
В просторном мире уголок,
Что я любил, любил до дна!
Была прекрасна тишина
Угрюмых вод и черных скал,
Что бор торжественный обстал.
Когда же Ночь, царица снов,
На все бросала свой покров
И ветр таинственный в тени
Роптал мелодию: усни! -
Я пробуждался вдруг мечтой
Для ужаса страны пустой.
Но этот ужас не был страх,
Был трепетный восторг в мечтах:
Не выразить его полней
За пышный блеск Голконды всей,
За дар Любви - хотя б твоей!
Но Смерть скрывалась там, в волнах
Тлетворных, был в них саркофаг -
Для всех, кто стал искать бы там
Покоя одиноким снам,
Кто скорбной грезой - мрачный край
Преобразил бы в светлый рай.
(1924)
Перевод В. Брюсова
Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,
Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,
Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering
To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,
Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?
Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car?
And driven the Hamadryad from the wood
To seek a shelter in some happier star?
Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,
The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?
(1829-1843)
Наука! ты - дитя Седых Времен!
Меняя все вниманьем глаз прозрачных,
Зачем тревожишь ты поэта сон,
О коршун! крылья чьи - взмах истин мрачных!
Тебя любить? и мудрой счесть тебя?
Зачем же ты мертвишь его усилья,
Когда, алмазы неба возлюбя,
Он мчится ввысь, раскинув смело крылья!
Дианы коней кто остановил?
Кто из леса изгнал Гамадриаду,
Услав искать приюта меж светил?
Кто выхватил из лона вод Наяду?
Из веток Эльфа? Кто бред летних грез,
Меж тамарисов, от меня унес?
(1924)
Перевод В. Брюсова
O! nothing earthly save the ray
(Thrown back from flowers) of Beauty's eye,
As in those gardens where the day
Springs from the gems of Circassy -
O! nothing earthly save the thrill
Of melody in woodland rill -
Or (music of the passion-hearted)
Joy's voice so peacefully departed
That like the murmur in the shell,
Its echo dwelleth and will dwell -
Oh, nothing of the dross of ours -
Yet all the beauty - all the flowers
That list our Love, and deck our bowers -
Adorn yon world afar, afar -
The wandering star.
'Twas a sweet time for Nesace - for there
Her world lay lolling on the golden air,
Near four bright suns - a temporary rest -
An oasis in desert of the blest.
Away - away - 'mid seas of rays that roll
Empyrean splendor o'er th' unchained soul -
The soul that scarce (the billows are so dense)
Can struggle to its destin'd eminence -
To distant spheres, from time to time, she rode,
And late to ours, the favour'd one of God -
But, now, the ruler of an anchor'd realm,
She throws aside the sceptre - leaves the helm,
And, amid incense and high spiritual hymns,
Laves in quadruple light her angel limbs.
Now happiest, loveliest in you lovely Earth,
Whence sprang the "Idea of Beauty" into birth,
(Falling in wreaths thro' many a startled star,
Like woman's hair 'mid pearls, until, afar,
It lit on hills Achaian, and there dwelt)
She look'd into Infinity - and knelt.
Rich clouds, for canopies, about her curled -
Fit emblems of the model of her world -
Seen but in beauty - not impeding sight
Of other beauty glittering thro' the light -
A wreath that twined each starry form around,
And all the opal'd air in color bound.
All hurriedly she knelt upon a bed
Of flowers: of lilies such as rear'd the head
On the fair Capo Deucato, and sprang
So eagerly around about to hang
Upon the flying footsteps of - deep pride -
Of her who lov'd a mortal - and so died.
The Sephalica, budding with young bees,
Uprear'd its purple stem around her knees:
And gemmy flower, of Trebizond misnam'd -
Inmate of highest stars, where erst it sham'd
All other loveliness: its honied dew
(The fabled nectar that the heathen knew)
Deliriously sweet, was dropp'd from Heaven,
And fell on gardens of the unforgiven
In Trebizond - and on a sunny flower
So like its own above that, to this hour,
It still remaineth, torturing the bee
With madness, and unwonted reverie:
In Heaven, and all its environs, the leaf
And blossom of the fairy plant, in grief
Disconsolate linger - grief that hangs her head,
Repenting follies that full long have fled,
Heaving her white breast to the balmy air,
Like guilty beauty, chasten'd, and more fair:
Nyctanthes too, as sacred as the light
She fears to perfume, perfuming the night:
And Clytia pondering between many a sun,
While pettish tears adown her petals run:
And that aspiring flower that sprang on Earth -
And died, ere scarce exalted into birth,
Bursting its odorous heart in spirit to wing
Its way to Heaven, from garden of a king:
And Valisnerian lotus thither flown
From struggling with the waters of the Rhone:
And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante!
Isola d'oro! - Fior di Levante!
And the Nelumbo bud that floats for ever
With Indian Cupid down the holy river -
Fair flowers, and fairy! to whose care is given
To bear the Goddess' song, in odors, up to Heaven:
"Spirit! that tlwellest where,
In the deep sky,
The terrible and fair,
In beauty vie!
Beyond the line of blue -
The boundary of the star
Which turneth at the view
Of thy barrier and thy bar -
Of the barrier overgone
By the comets who were cast
From their pride, and from their throne
To be drudges till the last -
To be carriers of fire
(The red fire of their heart)
With speed that may not tire
And with pain that shall not part -
Who livest - _that_ we know -
In Eternity - we feel -
But the shadow of whose brow
What spirit shall reveal?
Tho' the beings whom thy Nesace,
Thy messenger hath known
Have dream'd for thy Infinity
A model of their own -
Thy will is done. Oh, God!
The star hath ridden high
Thro' many a tempest, but she rode
Beneath thy burning eye;
And here, in thought, to thee -
In thought that can alone
Ascend thy empire and so be
A partner of thy throne -
By winged Fantasy,
My embassy is given,
Till secrecy shall knowledge be
In the environs of Heaven."
She ceas'd - and buried then her burning cheek
Abash'd, amid the lilies there, to seek
A shelter from the fervour of His eye;
For the stars trembled at the Deity.
She stirr'd not - breath'd not - for a voice was there
How solemnly pervading the calm air!
A sound of silence on the startled ear
Which dreamy poets name "the music of the sphere."
Ours is a world of words: Quiet we call
"Silence" - which is the merest word of all.
All Nature speaks, and ev'n ideal things
Flap shadowy sounds from visionary wings -
But ah! not so when, thus, in realms on high
The eternal voice of God is passing by,
And the red winds are withering in the sky!
"What tho' in worlds which sightless cycles run,
Link'd to a little system, and one sun -
Where all my love is folly and the crowd
Still think my terrors but the thunder cloud,
The storm, the earthquake, and the ocean-wrath -
(Ah! will they cross me in my angrier path?)
What tho' in worlds which own a single sun
The sands of Time grow dimmer as they run,
Yet thine is my resplendency, so given
To bear my secrets thro' the upper Heaven.
Leave tenantless thy crystal home, and fly,
With all thy train, athwart the moony sky -
Apart - like fire-flies in Sicilian night,
And wing to other worlds another light!
Divulge the secrets of thy embassy
To the proud orbs that twinkle - and so be
To ev'ry heart a barrier and a ban
Lest the stars totter in the guilt of man!"
Up rose the maiden in the yellow night,
The single-mooned eve! - on Earth we plight
Our faith to one love - and one moon adore -
The birth-place of young Beauty had no more.
As sprang that yellow star from downy hours
Up rose the maiden from her shrine of flowers,
And bent o'er sheeny mountain and dim plain
Her way - but left not yet her Therasaean reign.
High on a mountain of enamell'd head -
Such as the drowsy shepherd on his bed
Of giant pasturage lying at his ease,
Raising his heavy eyelid, starts and sees,
With many a mutter'd "hope to be forgiven"
What time the moon is quadrated in Heaven -
Of rosy head, that towering far away
Into the sunlit ether, caught the ray
Of sunken suns at eve - at noon of night,
While the moon danc'd with the fair stranger light -
Uprear'd upon such height arose a pile
Of gorgeous columns on th' unburthen'd air,
Flashing from Parian marble that twin smile
Far down upon the wave that sparkled there,
And nursled the young mountain in its lair.
Of molten stars their pavement, such as fall
Thro' the ebon air, besilvering the pall
Of their own dissolution, while they die -
Adorning then the dwellings of the sky.
A dome, by linked light from Heaven let down,
Sat gently on these columns as a crown -
A window of one circular diamond, there,
Look'd out above into the purple air,
And rays from God shot down that meteor chain
And hallow'd all the beauty twice again,
Save when, between th' Empyrean and that ring,
Some eager spirit flapp'd his dusky wing.
But on the pillars Seraph eyes have seen
The dimness of this world: that greyish green
That Nature loves the best for Beauty's grave
Lurk'd in each cornice, round each architrave -
And every sculptur'd cherub thereabout
That from his marble dwelling peered out,
Seem'd earthly in the shadow of his niche -
Achaian statues in a world so rich?
Friezes from Tadmor and Persepolis -
From Balbec, and the stilly, clear abyss
Of beautiful Gomorrah! O, the wave
Is now upon thee - but too late to save!
Sound loves to revel in a summer night:
Witness the murmur of the grey twilight
That stole upon the ear, in Eyraco,
Of many a wild star-gazer long ago -
That stealeth ever on the ear of him
Who, musing, gazeth on the distance dim.
And sees the darkness coming as a cloud -
Is not its form - its voice - most palpable and loud?
But what is this? - it cometh - and it brings
A music with it - 'tis the rush of wings -
A pause - and then a sweeping, falling strain
And Nesace is in her halls again.
From the wild energy of wanton haste
Her cheeks were flushing, and her lips apart;
And zone that clung around her gentle waist
Had burst beneath the heaving of her heart.
Within the centre of that hall to breathe
She paus'd and panted, Zanthe! all beneath,
The fairy light that kiss'd her golden hair
And long'd to rest, yet could but sparkle there!
Young flowers were whispering in melody
To happy flowers that night - and tree to tree;
Fountains were gushing music as they fell
In many a star-lit grove, or moon-lit dell;
Yet silence came upon material things -
Fair flowers, bright waterfalls and angel wings -
And sound alone that from the spirit sprang
Bore burthen to the charm the maiden sang:
"'Neath blue-bell or streamer -
Or tufted wild spray
That keeps, from the dreamer,
The moonbeam away -
Bright beings! that ponder,
With half closing eyes,
On the stars which your wonder
Hath drawn from the skies,
Till they glance thro' the shade, and
Come down to your brow
Like - eyes of the maiden
Who calls on you now -
Arise! from your dreaming
In violet bowers,
To duty beseeming
These star-litten hours -
And shake from your tresses
Encumber'd with dew
The breath of those kisses
That cumber them too -
(O! how, without you. Love!
Could angels be blest?)
Those kisses of true love
That lull'd ye to rest!
Up! - shake from your wing
Each hindering thing:
The dew of the night -
It would weight down your flight;
And true love caresses -
O! leave them apart!
They are light on the tresses,
But lead on the heart.
Ligeia! Ligeia!
My beautiful one!
Whose harshest idea
Will to melody run,
O! is it thy will
On the breezes to toss?
Or, capriciously still,
Like the lone Albatross,
Incumbent on night
(As she on the air)
To keep watch with delight
On the harmony there?
Ligeia! wherever
Thy image may be,
No magic shall sever
Thy music from thee.
Thou hast bound many eyes
In a dreamy sleep -
But the strains still arise
Which _thy_ vigilance keep -
The sound of the rain
Which leaps down to the flower,
And dances again
In the rhythm of the shower -
The murmur that springs
From the growing of grass
Are the music of things -
But are modell'd, alas! -
Away, then my dearest,
O! hie thee away
To springs that lie clearest
Beneath the moon-ray -
To lone lake that smiles,
In its dream of deep rest,
At the many star-isles
That enjewel its breast -
Where wild flowers, creeping,
Have mingled their shade,
On its margin is sleeping
Full many a maid -
Some have left the cool glade, and
Have slept with the bee -
Arouse them my maiden,
On moorland and lea -
Go! breathe on their slumber,
All softly in ear,
The musical number
They slumber'd to hear -
For what can awaken
An angel so soon
Whose sleep hath been taken
Beneath the cold moon,
As the spell which no clumber
Of witchery may test,
The rhythmical number
Which lull'd him to rest?"
Spirits in wing, and angels to the view,
A thousand seraphs burst th' Empyrean thro',
Young dreams still hovering on their drowsy flight -
Seraphs in all but "Knowledge", the keen light
That fell, refracted, thro' thy bounds, afar
O Death! from eye of God upon that star:
Sweet was that error - sweeter still that death -
Sweet was that error - ev'n with us the breath
Of Science dims the mirror of our joy -
To them 'twere the Simoon, and would destroy -
For what (to them) availeth it to know
That Truth is Falsehood - or that Bliss is Woe?
Sweet was their death - with them to die was rife
With the last ecstasy of satiate life -
Beyond that death no immortality
But sleep that pondereth and is not "to be" -
And there - oh! may my weary spirit dwell -
Apart from Heaven's Eternity - and yet how far
from Hell!
What guilty spirit, in what shrubbery dim,
Heard not the stirring summons of that hymn?
But two: they fell: for Heaven no grace imparts
To those who hear not for their beating hearts.
A maiden-angel and her seraph-lover -
O! where (and ye may seek the wide skies over)
Was Love, the blind, near sober Duty known?
Unguided Love hath fallen - 'mid "tears of perfect
moan."
He was a goodly spirit - he who fell:
A wanderer by moss-y-mantled well -
A gazer on the lights that shine above -
A dreamer in the moonbeam by his love:
What wonder? for each star is eye-like there,
And looks so sweetly down on Beauty's hair -
And they, and ev'ry mossy spring were holy
To his love-haunted heart and melancholy.
The night had found (to him a night of wo)
Upon a mountain crag, young Angelo -
Beetling it bends athwart the solemn sky,
And scowls on starry worlds that down beneath it lie.
Here sate he with his love - his dark eye bent
With eagle gaze along the firmament:
Now turn'd it upon her - but ever then
It trembled to the orb of EARTH again.
"lanthe, dearest, see! how dim that ray!
How lovely 'tis to look so far away!
She seem'd not thus upon that autumn eve
I left her gorgeous halls - nor mourn'd to leave.
That ese - that eve - I should remember well -
The sun-ray dropp'd, in Lemnos, with a spell
On th' Arabesque carving of a gilded hall
Wherein I sate, and on the draperied wall -
And on my eye-lids - О the heavy light!
How drowsily it weigh'd them into night!
On flowers, before, and mist, and love they ran
With Persian Saadi in his Gulistan:
But О that light! - I slumber'd - Death, the while,
Stole o'er my senses in that lovely isle
So softly that no single silken hair
Awoke that slept - or knew that he was there.
The last spot of Earth's orb I trod upon
Was a proud temple call'd the Parthenon -
More beauty clung around her column'd wall
Than ev'n thy glowing bosom beats withal,
And when old Time my wing did disenthral
Thence sprang I - as the eagle from his tower,
And years I left behind me in an hour.
What time upon her airy bounds I hung
One half the garden of her globe was flung
Unrolling as a chart unto my view -
Tenantless cities of the desert too!
lanthe, beauty crowded on me then,
And half I wish'd to be again of men."
"My Angelo! and why of them to be?
A brighter dwelling-place is here for thee -
And greener fields than in yon world above,
And woman's loveliness - and passionate love."
"But, list, Ianthe! when the air so soft
Fail'd, as my pennon'd spirit leapt aloft,
Perhaps my brain grew dizzy - but the world
I left so late was into chaos huri'd -
Sprang from her station, on the winds apart,
And roll'd, a flame, the fiery Heaven athwart.
Methought, my sweet one, then I ceased to soar
And fell - not swiftly as I rose before,
But with a downward, tremulous motion thro'
Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto!
Nor long the measure of my falling hours,
For nearest of all stars was thine to ours -
Dread star! that came, amid a night of mirth,
A red Daedalion on the timid Earth.
"We came - and to thy Earth - but not to us
Be given our lady's bidding to discuss:
We came, my love; around, above, below,
Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go,
Nor ask a reason save the angel-nod
_She_ grants to us, as granted by her God -
But, Angelo, than thine grey Time unfurl'd
Never his fairy wing o'er fairier world!
Dim was its little disk, and angel eyes
Alone could see the phantom in the skies,
When first Al Aaraaf knew her course to be
Headlong thitherward o'er the starry sea -
But when its glory swell'd upon the sky,
As glowing Beauty's bust beneath man's eye,
We paus'd before the heritage of men,
And thy star trembled - as doth Beauty then!"
Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away
The night that waned and waned and brought no day.
They fell: for Heaven to them no hope imparts
Who hear not for the beating of their hearts.
(1829-1845)
"Дух! ты, кто в высоте,
Там, где в эфире ясном
Равно по красоте
Ужасное с прекрасным!
Где твердь завершена,
Где грань орбитам звездным,
Откуда плыть должна
Звезда назад по безднам!
Где твой предел святой,
Незримый лишь кометам,
Наказанным судьбой
За грех пред вечным светом,
Несущим пламя в даль,
Луч алый преступленья
По Э. А. Лирика.
Мн.: Харвест, 1999.
ISBN 985-433-680-8.
OCR Бычков М.Н. mailto:bmn@lib.ru
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I saw thee on thy bridal day -
When a burning blush came o'er thee,
Though happiness around thee lay,
The world a'l love before thee:
And in thine eye a kindling light
(Whatever it might be)
Was all on Earth my aching sight
Of Loveliness could see.
That blush, perhaps, was maiden shame -
As such it well may pass -
Though its glow hath raised a fiercer flame
In the breast of him, alas!
Who saw thee on that bridal day,
When that deep blush would come o'er thee,
Though happiness around thee lay,
The world all love before thee.
(1827-1845)
Я помню: ты в день брачный твой,
Как от стыда зарделась вдруг,
Хоть счастье было пред тобой,
И, весь любовь, мир цвел вокруг.
Лучистый блеск в твоих очах
(Что ни таила ты)
Был - все, что на земле, в мечтах,
Есть выше красоты!
Быть может, девичьим стыдом
Румянец был - как знать! -
Но пламенем он вспыхнул в том,
Кто мог его понять,
Кто знал тебя в день брачный твой,
Когда могла ты вспыхнуть вдруг,
Хоть счастье было пред тобой,
И, весь любовь, мир цвел вокруг.
(1924)
Перевод В. Брюсова
Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!
My spirit not awak'ning till the beam
Of an Eternity should bring the morrow:
Yes! tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,
'Twere better than the dull reality
Of waking life to him whose heart shall be,
And hath been ever, on the chilly earth,
A chaos of deep passion from his birth!
But should it be - that dream eternally
Continuing - as dreams have been to me
In my young boyhood - should it thus be given,
'Twere folly still to hope for higher Heaven!
For I have revell'd, when the sun was bright
In the summer sky; in dreamy fields of light,
And left unheedingly my very heart
In climes of mine imagining - apart
From mine own home, with beings that have been
Of mine own thought - what more could I have seen?
'Twas once and _only_ once and the wild hour
From my remembrance shall not pass - some power
Or spell had bound me - 'twas the chilly wind
Came o'er me in the night and left behind
Its image on my spirit, or the moon
Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon
Too coldly - or the stars - howe'er it was
That dream was as that night wind - let it pass.
I have been happy - tho' but in a dream.
I have been happy - and I love the theme -
Dreams! in their vivid colouring of life -
As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife
Of semblance with reality which brings
To the delirious eye more lovely things
Of Paradise and Love - and all our own!
Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.
(1827-1828)
О! будь вся юность - лишь единый сон,
Так, чтобы дух проснулся, пробужден
Лучами Вечности, как мы - денницы,
Будь этот сон - страданье без границы, -
Его все ж предпочел бы, чем коснеть
В реальности, тот, кто привык терпеть,
Чье сердце было и пребудет страстно -
Мук хаосом здесь, на земле прекрасной!
Но был ли б этот, в долгой темноте
Прошедший, сон похож на грезы те,
Какими в детстве был я счастлив? - (Ибо
Небес прекрасней ждать сны не могли бы!)
При летнем солнце я тонул в мечтах
О Красоте и о живых лучах;
Я сердце отдал, с жаром неустанным,
Моей фантазии далеким странам
И существам, что сотворил я сам...
Что, большее, могло предстать мечтам?
То было раз, - лишь раз, - но из сознанья
Не выйдет этот миг! - Очарованье
Иль чья-то власть гнели меня; льдяной
Во тьме дышал ли ветер надо мной,
В моем уме свой облик оставляя?
Луна ль звала, над сном моим пылая,
Холодной слишком? - звезды ль? - только тот,
Миг был как ветер ночи (да пройдет!),
Я счастлив был - пусть в грезах сна пустого!
Я счастлив был - в мечтах! - Люблю я слово
"Мечта"! В ее стоцветной ворожбе,
Как в мутной, зыбкой, призрачной борьбе
С реальностью видений, той, что вещий
Бред создает, - прекраснейшие вещи
Любви и рая есть, что мне сродни,
Но чем не дарят юношества дни!
(1924)
Перевод В. Брюсова
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow -
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less _gone?_
_All_ that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand -
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep - while I weep!
О God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
О God! can I not save
_One from_ the pitiless wave?
Is _all_ that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
(1827-1849)
Пусть останется с тобой
Поцелуй прощальный мой!
От тебя я ухожу,
И тебе теперь скажу:
Не ошиблась ты в одном, -
Жизнь моя была лишь сном.
Но мечта, что сном жила,
Днем ли, ночью ли ушла,
Как виденье ли, как свет,
Чт_о_ мне в том, - ее уж _нет_.
_Все_, что зрится, мнится мне,
Все есть только сон во сне.
Я стою на берегу,
Бурю взором стерегу.
И держу в руках своих
Горсть песчинок золотых.
Как они ласкают взгляд!
Как их мало! Как скользят
Все - меж пальцев - вниз, к волне,
К глубине - на горе мне!
Как их бег мне задержать,
Как сильнее руки сжать?
Сохранится ль хоть одна,
Или все возьмет волна?
Или то, что зримо мне,
Все есть только сон во сне?
(1901)
Перевод К. Бальмонта
In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed -
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream - that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar -
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?
(1827-1845)
В виденьях темноты ночной
Мне снились радости, что были;
Но грезы жизни, сон денной,
Мне сжали сердце - и разбили.
О, почему не правда дня -
Сны ночи тем, чей взгляд
В лучах небесного огня
Былое видеть рад!
О сон святой! - о сон святой! -
Шум просыпался в мире тесном,
Но в жизнь я шел, ведом тобой,
Как некий дух лучом чудесным.
Пусть этот луч меж туч, сквозь муть,
Трепещет иногда, -
Что ярче озарит нам путь,
Чем Истины звезда!
(1924)
Перевод В. Брюсова
The happiest day - the happiest hour
My sear'd and blighted heart hath known,
The highest hope of pride, and power,
I feel hath flown.
Of power! said I? Yes! such I ween
But they have vanish'd long alas!
The visions of my youth have been -
But let them pass.
And, pride, what have I now with thee?
Another brow may ev'n inherit
The venom thou hast pour'd on me -
Be still my spirit.
The happiest day - the happiest hour
Mine eyes shall see - have ever seen
The brightest glance of pride and power
I feel - have been:
But were that hope of pride and power
Now offer'd, with the pain
Ev'n then I felt - that brightest hour
I would not live again:
For on its wing was dark alloy
And as it flutter'd - fell
An essence - powerful to destroy
A soul that knew it well.
(1827)
Счастливейший день! - счастливейший час! -
Что сердце усталое знало!
Вы, гордые грезы! надежды на власть!
Все, все миновало.
Надежды на власть! - Да! я помню: об том
(Мне память былое приводит)
Мечтал я когда-то во сне молодом...
Но пусть их проходят!
И гордые грезы? - Теперь мне - что в них!
Пусть яд их был мною усвоен,
Но пусть он палит ныне темя других.
Мой дух! будь спокоен.
Счастливейший день! - счастливейший час! -
Что сердце усталое знало,
Вы, гордые взгляды! вы, взгляды на власть!
Все, все миновало.
Но если бы снова и взяли вы верх,
Но с бредом мученья былого, -
Вас, миги надежд, я отверг бы, отверг,
Чтоб не мучиться снова!
Летите вы с пеньем, но гибель и страх
Змеится, как отблеск, по перьям,
И каплет с них яд, сожигающий в прах
Того, кто вас принял с доверьем.
(1924)
Перевод В. Брюсова
In spring of youth it was my lot
To haunt of the wide world a spot
The which I could not love the less -
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that towered around.
But when the Night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot, as upon all,
And the mystic wind went by
Murmuring in melody -
Then - ah then I would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.
Yet that terror was not fright,
But a tremulous delight -
A feeling not the jewelled mine
Could teach or bribe me to define -
Nor Love - although the Love were thine.
Death was in that poisonous wave,
And in its gulf a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his lone imagining -
Whose solitary soul could make
An Eden of that dim lake.
(1827-1845)
К ***
Меня, на утре жизни, влек
В просторном мире уголок,
Что я любил, любил до дна!
Была прекрасна тишина
Угрюмых вод и черных скал,
Что бор торжественный обстал.
Когда же Ночь, царица снов,
На все бросала свой покров
И ветр таинственный в тени
Роптал мелодию: усни! -
Я пробуждался вдруг мечтой
Для ужаса страны пустой.
Но этот ужас не был страх,
Был трепетный восторг в мечтах:
Не выразить его полней
За пышный блеск Голконды всей,
За дар Любви - хотя б твоей!
Но Смерть скрывалась там, в волнах
Тлетворных, был в них саркофаг -
Для всех, кто стал искать бы там
Покоя одиноким снам,
Кто скорбной грезой - мрачный край
Преобразил бы в светлый рай.
(1924)
Перевод В. Брюсова
Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,
Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,
Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering
To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,
Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?
Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car?
And driven the Hamadryad from the wood
To seek a shelter in some happier star?
Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,
The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?
(1829-1843)
Наука! ты - дитя Седых Времен!
Меняя все вниманьем глаз прозрачных,
Зачем тревожишь ты поэта сон,
О коршун! крылья чьи - взмах истин мрачных!
Тебя любить? и мудрой счесть тебя?
Зачем же ты мертвишь его усилья,
Когда, алмазы неба возлюбя,
Он мчится ввысь, раскинув смело крылья!
Дианы коней кто остановил?
Кто из леса изгнал Гамадриаду,
Услав искать приюта меж светил?
Кто выхватил из лона вод Наяду?
Из веток Эльфа? Кто бред летних грез,
Меж тамарисов, от меня унес?
(1924)
Перевод В. Брюсова
O! nothing earthly save the ray
(Thrown back from flowers) of Beauty's eye,
As in those gardens where the day
Springs from the gems of Circassy -
O! nothing earthly save the thrill
Of melody in woodland rill -
Or (music of the passion-hearted)
Joy's voice so peacefully departed
That like the murmur in the shell,
Its echo dwelleth and will dwell -
Oh, nothing of the dross of ours -
Yet all the beauty - all the flowers
That list our Love, and deck our bowers -
Adorn yon world afar, afar -
The wandering star.
'Twas a sweet time for Nesace - for there
Her world lay lolling on the golden air,
Near four bright suns - a temporary rest -
An oasis in desert of the blest.
Away - away - 'mid seas of rays that roll
Empyrean splendor o'er th' unchained soul -
The soul that scarce (the billows are so dense)
Can struggle to its destin'd eminence -
To distant spheres, from time to time, she rode,
And late to ours, the favour'd one of God -
But, now, the ruler of an anchor'd realm,
She throws aside the sceptre - leaves the helm,
And, amid incense and high spiritual hymns,
Laves in quadruple light her angel limbs.
Now happiest, loveliest in you lovely Earth,
Whence sprang the "Idea of Beauty" into birth,
(Falling in wreaths thro' many a startled star,
Like woman's hair 'mid pearls, until, afar,
It lit on hills Achaian, and there dwelt)
She look'd into Infinity - and knelt.
Rich clouds, for canopies, about her curled -
Fit emblems of the model of her world -
Seen but in beauty - not impeding sight
Of other beauty glittering thro' the light -
A wreath that twined each starry form around,
And all the opal'd air in color bound.
All hurriedly she knelt upon a bed
Of flowers: of lilies such as rear'd the head
On the fair Capo Deucato, and sprang
So eagerly around about to hang
Upon the flying footsteps of - deep pride -
Of her who lov'd a mortal - and so died.
The Sephalica, budding with young bees,
Uprear'd its purple stem around her knees:
And gemmy flower, of Trebizond misnam'd -
Inmate of highest stars, where erst it sham'd
All other loveliness: its honied dew
(The fabled nectar that the heathen knew)
Deliriously sweet, was dropp'd from Heaven,
And fell on gardens of the unforgiven
In Trebizond - and on a sunny flower
So like its own above that, to this hour,
It still remaineth, torturing the bee
With madness, and unwonted reverie:
In Heaven, and all its environs, the leaf
And blossom of the fairy plant, in grief
Disconsolate linger - grief that hangs her head,
Repenting follies that full long have fled,
Heaving her white breast to the balmy air,
Like guilty beauty, chasten'd, and more fair:
Nyctanthes too, as sacred as the light
She fears to perfume, perfuming the night:
And Clytia pondering between many a sun,
While pettish tears adown her petals run:
And that aspiring flower that sprang on Earth -
And died, ere scarce exalted into birth,
Bursting its odorous heart in spirit to wing
Its way to Heaven, from garden of a king:
And Valisnerian lotus thither flown
From struggling with the waters of the Rhone:
And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante!
Isola d'oro! - Fior di Levante!
And the Nelumbo bud that floats for ever
With Indian Cupid down the holy river -
Fair flowers, and fairy! to whose care is given
To bear the Goddess' song, in odors, up to Heaven:
"Spirit! that tlwellest where,
In the deep sky,
The terrible and fair,
In beauty vie!
Beyond the line of blue -
The boundary of the star
Which turneth at the view
Of thy barrier and thy bar -
Of the barrier overgone
By the comets who were cast
From their pride, and from their throne
To be drudges till the last -
To be carriers of fire
(The red fire of their heart)
With speed that may not tire
And with pain that shall not part -
Who livest - _that_ we know -
In Eternity - we feel -
But the shadow of whose brow
What spirit shall reveal?
Tho' the beings whom thy Nesace,
Thy messenger hath known
Have dream'd for thy Infinity
A model of their own -
Thy will is done. Oh, God!
The star hath ridden high
Thro' many a tempest, but she rode
Beneath thy burning eye;
And here, in thought, to thee -
In thought that can alone
Ascend thy empire and so be
A partner of thy throne -
By winged Fantasy,
My embassy is given,
Till secrecy shall knowledge be
In the environs of Heaven."
She ceas'd - and buried then her burning cheek
Abash'd, amid the lilies there, to seek
A shelter from the fervour of His eye;
For the stars trembled at the Deity.
She stirr'd not - breath'd not - for a voice was there
How solemnly pervading the calm air!
A sound of silence on the startled ear
Which dreamy poets name "the music of the sphere."
Ours is a world of words: Quiet we call
"Silence" - which is the merest word of all.
All Nature speaks, and ev'n ideal things
Flap shadowy sounds from visionary wings -
But ah! not so when, thus, in realms on high
The eternal voice of God is passing by,
And the red winds are withering in the sky!
"What tho' in worlds which sightless cycles run,
Link'd to a little system, and one sun -
Where all my love is folly and the crowd
Still think my terrors but the thunder cloud,
The storm, the earthquake, and the ocean-wrath -
(Ah! will they cross me in my angrier path?)
What tho' in worlds which own a single sun
The sands of Time grow dimmer as they run,
Yet thine is my resplendency, so given
To bear my secrets thro' the upper Heaven.
Leave tenantless thy crystal home, and fly,
With all thy train, athwart the moony sky -
Apart - like fire-flies in Sicilian night,
And wing to other worlds another light!
Divulge the secrets of thy embassy
To the proud orbs that twinkle - and so be
To ev'ry heart a barrier and a ban
Lest the stars totter in the guilt of man!"
Up rose the maiden in the yellow night,
The single-mooned eve! - on Earth we plight
Our faith to one love - and one moon adore -
The birth-place of young Beauty had no more.
As sprang that yellow star from downy hours
Up rose the maiden from her shrine of flowers,
And bent o'er sheeny mountain and dim plain
Her way - but left not yet her Therasaean reign.
High on a mountain of enamell'd head -
Such as the drowsy shepherd on his bed
Of giant pasturage lying at his ease,
Raising his heavy eyelid, starts and sees,
With many a mutter'd "hope to be forgiven"
What time the moon is quadrated in Heaven -
Of rosy head, that towering far away
Into the sunlit ether, caught the ray
Of sunken suns at eve - at noon of night,
While the moon danc'd with the fair stranger light -
Uprear'd upon such height arose a pile
Of gorgeous columns on th' unburthen'd air,
Flashing from Parian marble that twin smile
Far down upon the wave that sparkled there,
And nursled the young mountain in its lair.
Of molten stars their pavement, such as fall
Thro' the ebon air, besilvering the pall
Of their own dissolution, while they die -
Adorning then the dwellings of the sky.
A dome, by linked light from Heaven let down,
Sat gently on these columns as a crown -
A window of one circular diamond, there,
Look'd out above into the purple air,
And rays from God shot down that meteor chain
And hallow'd all the beauty twice again,
Save when, between th' Empyrean and that ring,
Some eager spirit flapp'd his dusky wing.
But on the pillars Seraph eyes have seen
The dimness of this world: that greyish green
That Nature loves the best for Beauty's grave
Lurk'd in each cornice, round each architrave -
And every sculptur'd cherub thereabout
That from his marble dwelling peered out,
Seem'd earthly in the shadow of his niche -
Achaian statues in a world so rich?
Friezes from Tadmor and Persepolis -
From Balbec, and the stilly, clear abyss
Of beautiful Gomorrah! O, the wave
Is now upon thee - but too late to save!
Sound loves to revel in a summer night:
Witness the murmur of the grey twilight
That stole upon the ear, in Eyraco,
Of many a wild star-gazer long ago -
That stealeth ever on the ear of him
Who, musing, gazeth on the distance dim.
And sees the darkness coming as a cloud -
Is not its form - its voice - most palpable and loud?
But what is this? - it cometh - and it brings
A music with it - 'tis the rush of wings -
A pause - and then a sweeping, falling strain
And Nesace is in her halls again.
From the wild energy of wanton haste
Her cheeks were flushing, and her lips apart;
And zone that clung around her gentle waist
Had burst beneath the heaving of her heart.
Within the centre of that hall to breathe
She paus'd and panted, Zanthe! all beneath,
The fairy light that kiss'd her golden hair
And long'd to rest, yet could but sparkle there!
Young flowers were whispering in melody
To happy flowers that night - and tree to tree;
Fountains were gushing music as they fell
In many a star-lit grove, or moon-lit dell;
Yet silence came upon material things -
Fair flowers, bright waterfalls and angel wings -
And sound alone that from the spirit sprang
Bore burthen to the charm the maiden sang:
"'Neath blue-bell or streamer -
Or tufted wild spray
That keeps, from the dreamer,
The moonbeam away -
Bright beings! that ponder,
With half closing eyes,
On the stars which your wonder
Hath drawn from the skies,
Till they glance thro' the shade, and
Come down to your brow
Like - eyes of the maiden
Who calls on you now -
Arise! from your dreaming
In violet bowers,
To duty beseeming
These star-litten hours -
And shake from your tresses
Encumber'd with dew
The breath of those kisses
That cumber them too -
(O! how, without you. Love!
Could angels be blest?)
Those kisses of true love
That lull'd ye to rest!
Up! - shake from your wing
Each hindering thing:
The dew of the night -
It would weight down your flight;
And true love caresses -
O! leave them apart!
They are light on the tresses,
But lead on the heart.
Ligeia! Ligeia!
My beautiful one!
Whose harshest idea
Will to melody run,
O! is it thy will
On the breezes to toss?
Or, capriciously still,
Like the lone Albatross,
Incumbent on night
(As she on the air)
To keep watch with delight
On the harmony there?
Ligeia! wherever
Thy image may be,
No magic shall sever
Thy music from thee.
Thou hast bound many eyes
In a dreamy sleep -
But the strains still arise
Which _thy_ vigilance keep -
The sound of the rain
Which leaps down to the flower,
And dances again
In the rhythm of the shower -
The murmur that springs
From the growing of grass
Are the music of things -
But are modell'd, alas! -
Away, then my dearest,
O! hie thee away
To springs that lie clearest
Beneath the moon-ray -
To lone lake that smiles,
In its dream of deep rest,
At the many star-isles
That enjewel its breast -
Where wild flowers, creeping,
Have mingled their shade,
On its margin is sleeping
Full many a maid -
Some have left the cool glade, and
Have slept with the bee -
Arouse them my maiden,
On moorland and lea -
Go! breathe on their slumber,
All softly in ear,
The musical number
They slumber'd to hear -
For what can awaken
An angel so soon
Whose sleep hath been taken
Beneath the cold moon,
As the spell which no clumber
Of witchery may test,
The rhythmical number
Which lull'd him to rest?"
Spirits in wing, and angels to the view,
A thousand seraphs burst th' Empyrean thro',
Young dreams still hovering on their drowsy flight -
Seraphs in all but "Knowledge", the keen light
That fell, refracted, thro' thy bounds, afar
O Death! from eye of God upon that star:
Sweet was that error - sweeter still that death -
Sweet was that error - ev'n with us the breath
Of Science dims the mirror of our joy -
To them 'twere the Simoon, and would destroy -
For what (to them) availeth it to know
That Truth is Falsehood - or that Bliss is Woe?
Sweet was their death - with them to die was rife
With the last ecstasy of satiate life -
Beyond that death no immortality
But sleep that pondereth and is not "to be" -
And there - oh! may my weary spirit dwell -
Apart from Heaven's Eternity - and yet how far
from Hell!
What guilty spirit, in what shrubbery dim,
Heard not the stirring summons of that hymn?
But two: they fell: for Heaven no grace imparts
To those who hear not for their beating hearts.
A maiden-angel and her seraph-lover -
O! where (and ye may seek the wide skies over)
Was Love, the blind, near sober Duty known?
Unguided Love hath fallen - 'mid "tears of perfect
moan."
He was a goodly spirit - he who fell:
A wanderer by moss-y-mantled well -
A gazer on the lights that shine above -
A dreamer in the moonbeam by his love:
What wonder? for each star is eye-like there,
And looks so sweetly down on Beauty's hair -
And they, and ev'ry mossy spring were holy
To his love-haunted heart and melancholy.
The night had found (to him a night of wo)
Upon a mountain crag, young Angelo -
Beetling it bends athwart the solemn sky,
And scowls on starry worlds that down beneath it lie.
Here sate he with his love - his dark eye bent
With eagle gaze along the firmament:
Now turn'd it upon her - but ever then
It trembled to the orb of EARTH again.
"lanthe, dearest, see! how dim that ray!
How lovely 'tis to look so far away!
She seem'd not thus upon that autumn eve
I left her gorgeous halls - nor mourn'd to leave.
That ese - that eve - I should remember well -
The sun-ray dropp'd, in Lemnos, with a spell
On th' Arabesque carving of a gilded hall
Wherein I sate, and on the draperied wall -
And on my eye-lids - О the heavy light!
How drowsily it weigh'd them into night!
On flowers, before, and mist, and love they ran
With Persian Saadi in his Gulistan:
But О that light! - I slumber'd - Death, the while,
Stole o'er my senses in that lovely isle
So softly that no single silken hair
Awoke that slept - or knew that he was there.
The last spot of Earth's orb I trod upon
Was a proud temple call'd the Parthenon -
More beauty clung around her column'd wall
Than ev'n thy glowing bosom beats withal,
And when old Time my wing did disenthral
Thence sprang I - as the eagle from his tower,
And years I left behind me in an hour.
What time upon her airy bounds I hung
One half the garden of her globe was flung
Unrolling as a chart unto my view -
Tenantless cities of the desert too!
lanthe, beauty crowded on me then,
And half I wish'd to be again of men."
"My Angelo! and why of them to be?
A brighter dwelling-place is here for thee -
And greener fields than in yon world above,
And woman's loveliness - and passionate love."
"But, list, Ianthe! when the air so soft
Fail'd, as my pennon'd spirit leapt aloft,
Perhaps my brain grew dizzy - but the world
I left so late was into chaos huri'd -
Sprang from her station, on the winds apart,
And roll'd, a flame, the fiery Heaven athwart.
Methought, my sweet one, then I ceased to soar
And fell - not swiftly as I rose before,
But with a downward, tremulous motion thro'
Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto!
Nor long the measure of my falling hours,
For nearest of all stars was thine to ours -
Dread star! that came, amid a night of mirth,
A red Daedalion on the timid Earth.
"We came - and to thy Earth - but not to us
Be given our lady's bidding to discuss:
We came, my love; around, above, below,
Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go,
Nor ask a reason save the angel-nod
_She_ grants to us, as granted by her God -
But, Angelo, than thine grey Time unfurl'd
Never his fairy wing o'er fairier world!
Dim was its little disk, and angel eyes
Alone could see the phantom in the skies,
When first Al Aaraaf knew her course to be
Headlong thitherward o'er the starry sea -
But when its glory swell'd upon the sky,
As glowing Beauty's bust beneath man's eye,
We paus'd before the heritage of men,
And thy star trembled - as doth Beauty then!"
Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away
The night that waned and waned and brought no day.
They fell: for Heaven to them no hope imparts
Who hear not for the beating of their hearts.
(1829-1845)
"Дух! ты, кто в высоте,
Там, где в эфире ясном
Равно по красоте
Ужасное с прекрасным!
Где твердь завершена,
Где грань орбитам звездным,
Откуда плыть должна
Звезда назад по безднам!
Где твой предел святой,
Незримый лишь кометам,
Наказанным судьбой
За грех пред вечным светом,
Несущим пламя в даль,
Луч алый преступленья