第 3 节
作者:随便看看      更新:2022-07-12 16:18      字数:9322
  Farewell; fair day。  If any God
  At all consider this poor clod;
  He who the fair occasion sent
  Prepared and placed the impediment。
  Let him diviner vengeance take …
  Give me to sleep; give me to wake
  Girded and shod; and bid me play
  The hero in the coming day!
  XXV … IF THIS WERE FAITH
  GOD; if this were enough;
  That I see things bare to the buff
  And up to the buttocks in mire;
  That I ask nor hope nor hire;
  Nut in the husk;
  Nor dawn beyond the dusk;
  Nor life beyond death:
  God; if this were faith?
  Having felt thy wind in my face
  Spit sorrow and disgrace;
  Having seen thine evil doom
  In Golgotha and Khartoum;
  And the brutes; the work of thine hands;
  Fill with injustice lands
  And stain with blood the sea:
  If still in my veins the glee
  Of the black night and the sun
  And the lost battle; run:
  If; an adept;
  The iniquitous lists I still accept
  With joy; and joy to endure and be withstood;
  And still to battle and perish for a dream of good:
  God; if that were enough?
  If to feel; in the ink of the slough;
  And the sink of the mire;
  Veins of glory and fire
  Run through and transpierce and transpire;
  And a secret purpose of glory in every part;
  And the answering glory of battle fill my heart;
  To thrill with the joy of girded men
  To go on for ever and fail and go on again;
  And be mauled to the earth and arise;
  And contend for the shade of a word and a thing not seen with
  the eyes:
  With the half of a broken hope for a pillow at night
  That somehow the right is the right
  And the smooth shall bloom from the rough:
  Lord; if that were enough?
  XXVI … MY WIFE
  TRUSTY; dusky; vivid; true;
  With eyes of gold and bramble…dew;
  Steel…true and blade…straight;
  The great artificer
  Made my mate。
  Honour; anger; valour; fire;
  A love that life could never tire;
  Death quench or evil stir;
  The mighty master
  Gave to her。
  Teacher; tender; comrade; wife;
  A fellow…farer true through life;
  Heart…whole and soul…free
  The august father
  Gave to me。
  XXVII … TO THE MUSE
  RESIGN the rhapsody; the dream;
  To men of larger reach;
  Be ours the quest of a plain theme;
  The piety of speech。
  As monkish scribes from morning break
  Toiled till the close of light;
  Nor thought a day too long to make
  One line or letter bright:
  We also with an ardent mind;
  Time; wealth; and fame forgot;
  Our glory in our patience find
  And skim; and skim the pot:
  Till last; when round the house we hear
  The evensong of birds;
  One corner of blue heaven appear
  In our clear well of words。
  Leave; leave it then; muse of my heart!
  Sans finish and sans frame;
  Leave unadorned by needless art
  The picture as it came。
  XXVIII … TO AN ISLAND PRINCESS
  SINCE long ago; a child at home;
  I read and longed to rise and roam;
  Where'er I went; whate'er I willed;
  One promised land my fancy filled。
  Hence the long roads my home I made;
  Tossed much in ships; have often laid
  Below the uncurtained sky my head;
  Rain…deluged and wind…buffeted:
  And many a thousand hills I crossed
  And corners turned … Love's labour lost;
  Till; Lady; to your isle of sun
  I came; not hoping; and; like one
  Snatched out of blindness; rubbed my eyes;
  And hailed my promised land with cries。
  Yes; Lady; here I was at last;
  Here found I all I had forecast:
  The long roll of the sapphire sea
  That keeps the land's virginity;
  The stalwart giants of the wood
  Laden with toys and flowers and food;
  The precious forest pouring out
  To compass the whole town about;
  The town itself with streets of lawn;
  Loved of the moon; blessed by the dawn;
  Where the brown children all the day
  Keep up a ceaseless noise of play;
  Play in the sun; play in the rain;
  Nor ever quarrel or complain; …
  And late at night; in the woods of fruit;
  Hark! do you hear the passing flute?
  I threw one look to either hand;
  And knew I was in Fairyland。
  And yet one point of being so
  I lacked。  For; Lady (as you know);
  Whoever by his might of hand;
  Won entrance into Fairyland;
  Found always with admiring eyes
  A Fairy princess kind and wise。
  It was not long I waited; soon
  Upon my threshold; in broad noon;
  Gracious and helpful; wise and good;
  The Fairy Princess Moe stood。
  Tantira; Tahiti; Nov。 5; 1888。
  XXIX … TO KALAKAUA (With a present of a Pearl)
  THE Silver Ship; my King … that was her name
  In the bright islands whence your fathers came …
  The Silver Ship; at rest from winds and tides;
  Below your palace in your harbour rides:
  And the seafarers; sitting safe on shore;
  Like eager merchants count their treasures o'er。
  One gift they find; one strange and lovely thing;
  Now doubly precious since it pleased a king。
  The right; my liege; is ancient as the lyre
  For bards to give to kings what kings admire。
  'Tis mine to offer for Apollo's sake;
  And since the gift is fitting; yours to take。
  To golden hands the golden pearl I bring:
  The ocean jewel to the island king。
  Honolulu; Feb。 3; 1889。
  XXX … TO PRINCESS KAIULANI
  'Written in April to Kaiulani in the April of her age; and at
  Waikiki; within easy walk of Kaiulani's banyan!  When she comes to my
  land and her father's; and the rain beats upon the window (as I fear
  it will); let her look at this page; it will be like a weed gathered
  and pressed at home; and she will remember her own islands; and the
  shadow of the mighty tree; and she will hear the peacocks screaming
  in the dusk and the wind blowing in the palms; and she will think of
  her father sitting there alone。 … R。 L。 S。'
  FORTH from her land to mine she goes;
  The island maid; the island rose;
  Light of heart and bright of face:
  The daughter of a double race。
  Her islands here; in Southern sun;
  Shall mourn their Kaiulani gone;
  And I; in her dear banyan shade;
  Look vainly for my little maid。
  But our Scots islands far away
  Shall glitter with unwonted day;
  And cast for once their tempests by
  To smile in Kaiulani's eye。
  Honolulu。
  XXXI … TO MOTHER MARYANNE
  To see the infinite pity of this place;
  The mangled limb; the devastated face;
  The innocent sufferer smiling at the rod …
  A fool were tempted to deny his God。
  He sees; he shrinks。  But if he gaze again;
  Lo; beauty springing from the breast of pain!
  He marks the sisters on the mournful shores;
  And even a fool is silent and adores。
  Guest House; Kalawao; Molokai。
  XXXII … IN MEMORIAM E。 H。
  I KNEW a silver head was bright beyond compare;
  I knew a queen of toil with a crown of silver hair。
  Garland of valour and sorrow; of beauty and renown;
  Life; that honours the brave; crowned her himself with the crown。
  The beauties of youth are frail; but this was a jewel of age。
  Life; that delights in the brave; gave it himself for a gage。
  Fair was the crown to behold; and beauty its poorest part …
  At once the scar of the wound and the order pinned on the heart。
  The beauties of man are frail; and the silver lies in the dust;
  And the queen that we call to mind sleeps with the brave and the just;
  Sleeps with the weary at length; but; honoured and ever fair;
  Shines in the eye of the mind the crown of the silver hair。
  Honolulu。
  XXXIII … TO MY WIFE (A Fragment)
  LONG must elapse ere you behold again
  Green forest frame the entry of the lane …
  The wild lane with the bramble and the brier;
  The year…old cart…tracks perfect in the mire;
  The wayside smoke; perchance; the dwarfish huts;
  And ramblers' donkey drinking from the ruts: …
  Long ere you trace how deviously it leads;
  Back from man's chimneys and the bleating meads
  To the woodland shadow; to the sylvan hush;
  When but the brooklet chuckles in the brush …
  Back from the sun and bustle of the vale
  To where the great voice of the nightingale
  Fills all the forest like a single room;
  And all the banks smell of the golden broom;
  So wander on until the eve descends。
  And back returning to your firelit friends;
  You see the rosy sun; despoiled of light;
  Hung; caught in thickets; like a schoolboy's kite。
  Here from the sea the unfruitful sun shall rise;
  Bathe the bare deck and blind the unshielded eyes;
  The allotted hours aloft shall wheel in vain
  And in the unpregnant ocean plunge again。
  Assault of squalls that mock the watchful guard;
  And pluck the bursting canvas from the yard;
  And senseless clamour of the calm; at night
  Must mar your slumbers。  By the plunging light;
  In beetle…haunted; most unwomanly bower
  Of the wild…swerving cabin; hour by hour 。 。 。
  Schooner 'Equator。'
  XXXIV … TO MY OLD FAMILIARS
  DO you remember … can we e'er forget? …
  How; in the coiled…perplexities of youth;
  In our wild climate; in our scowling town;
  We gloomed and shi