登陆注册
26288000000031

第31章 XXVIII(4)

Or those red-curtained panes, Whence a tame cornet tenored it throatily Of beer-pots and spittoons and new long pipes, Might turn a caravansery's, wherein You found Noureddin Ali, loftily drunk, And that fair Persian, bathed in tears, You'd not have given away For all the diamonds in the Vale Perilous You had that dark and disleaved afternoon Escaped on a roc's claw, Disguised like Sindbad--but in Christmas beef!

And all the blissful while The schoolboy satchel at your hip Was such a bulse of gems as should amaze Grey-whiskered chapmen drawn From over Caspian: yea, the Chief Jewellers Of Tartary and the bazaars, Seething with traffic, of enormous Ind. -

Thus cried, thus called aloud, to the child heart The magian East: thus the child eyes Spelled out the wizard message by the light Of the sober, workaday hours They saw, week in week out, pass, and still pass In the sleepy Minster City, folded kind In ancient Severn's arm, Amongst her water-meadows and her docks, Whose floating populace of ships -

Galliots and luggers, light-heeled brigantines, Bluff barques and rake-hell fore-and-afters--brought To her very doorsteps and geraniums The scents of the World's End; the calls That may not be gainsaid to rise and ride Like fire on some high errand of the race;

The irresistible appeals For comradeship that sound Steadily from the irresistible sea.

Thus the East laughed and whispered, and the tale, Telling itself anew In terms of living, labouring life, Took on the colours, busked it in the wear Of life that lived and laboured; and Romance, The Angel-Playmate, raining down His golden influences On all I saw, and all I dreamed and did, Walked with me arm in arm, Or left me, as one bediademed with straws And bits of glass, to gladden at my heart Who had the gift to seek and feel and find His fiery-hearted presence everywhere.

Even so dear Hesper, bringer of all good things, Sends the same silver dews Of happiness down her dim, delighted skies On some poor collier-hamlet--(mound on mound Of sifted squalor; here a soot-throated stalk Sullenly smoking over a row Of flat-faced hovels; black in the gritty air A web of rails and wheels and beams; with strings Of hurtling, tipping trams) -

As on the amorous nightingales And roses of Shiraz, or the walls and towers Of Samarcand--the Ineffable--whence you espy The splendour of Ginnistan's embattled spears, Like listed lightnings.

Samarcand!

That name of names! That star-vaned belvedere Builded against the Chambers of the South!

That outpost on the Infinite!

And behold!

Questing therefrom, you knew not what wild tide Might overtake you: for one fringe, One suburb, is stablished on firm earth; but one Floats founded vague In lubberlands delectable--isles of palm And lotus, fortunate mains, far-shimmering seas, The promise of wistful hills -

The shining, shifting Sovranties of Dream.

BRIC-A-BRAC

'The tune of the time.'--HAMLET, concerning OSRIC

BALLADE OF A TOYOKUNI COLOUR-PRINT--To W. A.

Was I a Samurai renowned, Two-sworded, fierce, immense of bow?

A histrion angular and profound?

A priest? a porter?--Child, although I have forgotten clean, I know That in the shade of Fujisan, What time the cherry-orchards blow, I loved you once in old Japan.

As here you loiter, flowing-gowned And hugely sashed, with pins a-row Your quaint head as with flamelets crowned, Demure, inviting--even so, When merry maids in Miyako To feel the sweet o' the year began, And green gardens to overflow, I loved you once in old Japan.

Clear shine the hills; the rice-fields round Two cranes are circling; sleepy and slow, A blue canal the lake's blue bound Breaks at the bamboo bridge; and lo!

Touched with the sundown's spirit and glow, I see you turn, with flirted fan, Against the plum-tree's bloomy snow . . .

I loved you once in old Japan!

Envoy Dear, 'twas a dozen lives ago;

But that I was a lucky man The Toyokuni here will show:

I loved you--once--in old Japan.

BALLADE (DOUBLE REFRAIN) OF YOUTH AND AGE--I. M. Thomas Edward Brown (1829-1896)

Spring at her height on a morn at prime, Sails that laugh from a flying squall, Pomp of harmony, rapture of rhyme -

Youth is the sign of them, one and all.

Winter sunsets and leaves that fall, An empty flagon, a folded page, A tumble-down wheel, a tattered ball -

These are a type of the world of Age.

Bells that clash in a gaudy chime, Swords that clatter in onsets tall, The words that ring and the fames that climb -

Youth is the sign of them, one and all.

Hymnals old in a dusty stall, A bald, blind bird in a crazy cage, The scene of a faded festival -

These are a type of the world of Age.

Hours that strut as the heirs of time, Deeds whose rumour's a clarion-call, Songs where the singers their souls sublime -

Youth is the sign of them, one and all.

A staff that rests in a nook of wall, A reeling battle, a rusted gage, The chant of a nearing funeral -

These are a type of the world of Age.

Envoy Struggle and turmoil, revel and brawl -

Youth is the sign of them, one and all.

A smouldering hearth and a silent stage -

These are a type of the world of Age.

BALLADE (DOUBLE REFRAIN) OF MIDSUMMER DAYS AND NIGHTS--To W. H.

With a ripple of leaves and a tinkle of streams The full world rolls in a rhythm of praise, And the winds are one with the clouds and beams -

Midsummer days! Midsummer days!

The dusk grows vast; in a purple haze, While the West from a rapture of sunset rights, Faint stars their exquisite lamps upraise -

Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights!

The wood's green heart is a nest of dreams, The lush grass thickens and springs and sways, The rathe wheat rustles, the landscape gleams -

Midsummer days! Midsummer days!

In the stilly fields, in the stilly ways, All secret shadows and mystic lights, Late lovers murmur and linger and gaze -

Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights!

There's a music of bells from the trampling teams, Wild skylarks hover, the gorses blaze, The rich, ripe rose as with incense steams -

Midsummer days! Midsummer days!

同类推荐
  • Tempest

    Tempest

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 皇朝平吴录

    皇朝平吴录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 九州春秋

    九州春秋

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 筠谷诗

    筠谷诗

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 地持义记卷第四

    地持义记卷第四

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 一世相安

    一世相安

    她本是平常人家的女儿,却为报恩亲不惜顶替其千金嫁入王府,天下百姓皆传王爷乃痴儿一个,她却未曾料到他是故意装疯卖傻。他无心于儿女之情,可她却不知不觉喜欢上了他。政治阴谋她不懂,她只想他能爱上自己。这个世上没有绝对孤独的人,但是却有着绝对的孤独。她就像是一束光,渐渐温暖了他尘封的心...........穿花蛱蝶深深见,点水蜻蜓款款飞。.
  • 致命暗诱惑

    致命暗诱惑

    她以为她的一生中不会再有幸福,注定下地狱的彼岸花。冥冥中注定,此生他与她注定纠葛交织。他是豪门富少,但却是私生子,他恨透了那个为一己私欲抛下整个家庭的男人,千方百计证明自己的存在却换不来那个可贵的亲情。命中注定的相遇,同样的冷酷无情,当无情撞上无情——“我会倾覆你一切幸福!”她扬起媚世的笑容肆无忌惮尽显张扬。“那我就陪你捣乱整个苍穹!”他以45度完美弧度封住了她的唇,也封住了她的心。
  • 心灵鸡汤

    心灵鸡汤

    俗话说,人最大的弱点是不能认识自己。也就是说,有的人看不到自己的缺点,有的人看不到自己的优点。看不到自己缺点的人大多不能进步,而看不到自己优点的人有着潜在的发展空间,这样的人一旦认识了自己的优点,甚至由绝望变为希望,他很可能成就了自己的优点。
  • 正值青春那几年

    正值青春那几年

    平凡或许才是最真实。或许平凡的人也有不平凡的青春
  • 倾世毒女素手天下

    倾世毒女素手天下

    亡国恨,杀亲仇,丧子痛。她是西越倾城公主,却错把豺狼当良人。三年屈辱,浴血重生。她本就是尊贵至极,岂容他人凌辱践踏。时光倒回,她步步惊心,只为护她的国,保她的亲人。还有,复仇!曾经纯真任性的小公主,双眸再次睁开,已是地狱之中爬出来的浴血凤凰。不择手段,双手沾血,也无怨无悔。
  • 守护甜心之幽梦雪樱

    守护甜心之幽梦雪樱

    我们的爱情也许是一场梦,或者是一瞬间的擦肩而过,欺骗了两年的感情,只不过是利用着玩儿,如同玩偶一般,等玩腻了,就会抛弃,告诉事情的真实,你们觉得利用感觉是一种很好玩儿的事情吗?你们觉得爱情这种东西是用来玩儿的吗?呵!你们未免想的太简单了,欺骗感情的人就应该付出代价,像你们把我们甩掉的那种感受,让你们明白什么叫撕心裂肺的痛!后来让你们的生命截止到那一天,我真是不明白你们为什么不懂什么叫爱情,谁会为了你去拼命的战斗,吐出血丝也依然坚强,甚至连命也不要了,而换来的是什么!杀死父母和朋友,下手丝毫没有感情,你们有想过我们的感受吗?从那天开始,我们的复仇游戏就即将开始,做好心理准备吧!欺骗爱情的人!
  • 斗渣剩妃经商记

    斗渣剩妃经商记

    卫国公嫡女,苦熬十年,为他筹谋,助他登基,却在凤临天下的当晚被囚禁。屈辱求生,却等来嫡兄被乱箭射死,外祖家斩首抄没!终一日,她对天起誓,若可重来,绝不为后!本应香消玉殒,睁眼却是重回十三岁,庶姐想毁我容?做梦!换我来毁你节!庶母欲破我身?没门!让我来揭你丑!渣男望纳我为正妃?妄想!堂妹才会去爬你的床!本以为这世要独孤一生,却偏偏遇见了他!(本文纯属虚构,请勿模仿。)
  • 冰纷盛夏

    冰纷盛夏

    她是全国第一富豪的千金、全国第一强企业总裁的女儿;他,没有多大的身份背景,却为了她而创建了一个能与全国第一强企业比肩的高度。情路坎坷,悲欢离合,愿有情人终成眷属。本书是原版,如有雷同,就是她抄我的!
  • 穿越到未来

    穿越到未来

    由于外星佬的一个实验错误,将原本生活在2008年的晏小北带到了2010年。并在外星佬以一个高等科技“记忆晶片”的赔偿后,开始了不同寻常的生活。殊不知,这一切却是外星佬的蓄意而为……穿越的故事那么多,其实只有一句箴言--珍惜现在!******新人新书,但身为一个男人,小北承诺。誓不进宫!!!请大家放心收藏,多多支持!
  • 大唐兵王

    大唐兵王

    一个本科院校化学系的颓废大学生意外身亡,醒来发现自己穿越到了大唐开元27年,成为历史上结局很悲情的酒丞李适之的儿子,此时的朝堂李林甫一手遮天,李隆基放权享乐;安禄山还在东北战场奋勇地杀胡;杨玉环正在跟李瑁秀恩爱,盛世将末,大厦将倾。李隆基垂暮之年,沉迷声色,一代盛世王朝,即将被安禄山的铁骑倾覆。家道中落,奸淫当道,且看李跃如何逆天改命拯救家族。醉卧沙场,冷观朝势,图谋霸业,猎取天下!江山如画,美人似花,公子如玉,诡谋似狐。我本无情,却御女无数;我本仁善,却屠戮苍生;我本纨绔,却称霸天下!