Poems

Автор

Виктор Мари Гюго

Жанр

Зарубежная классика

Год написания книги

2017

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Star of even! sunk the sun!
Lost for e'er the ruddy line;
And the earth is veiled in dun, —
"Nay, in darkness, best I shine!"

O, my soul! art 'bove alarm,
Quaffing thus the cup of gall —
Canst thou face the grave with calm? —
"Yes, the Christians smile at all."

THE EXILE'S DESIRE

("Si je pouvais voir, O patrie!")

{Bk. III. xxxvii.}

Would I could see you, native land,
Where lilacs and the almond stand
Behind fields flowering to the strand —
But no!

Can I – oh, father, mother, crave
Another final blessing save
To rest my head upon your grave? —
But no!

In the one pit where ye repose,
Would I could tell of France's woes,
My brethren, who fell facing foes —
But no!

Would I had – oh, my dove of light,
After whose flight came ceaseless night,
One plume to clasp so purely white. —
But no!

Far from ye all – oh, dead, bewailed!
The fog-bell deafens me empaled
Upon this rock – I feel enjailed —
Though free.

Like one who watches at the gate
Lest some shall 'scape the doomèd strait.
I watch! the tyrant, howe'er late,
Must fall!

THE REFUGEE'S HAVEN

("Vous voilà dans la froide Angleterre.")

{Bk. III. xlvii., Jersey, Sept. 19, 1854.}

You may doubt I find comfort in England
But, there, 'tis a refuge from dangers!
Where a Cromwell dictated to Milton,
Republicans ne'er can be strangers!

VARIOUS PIECES.

TO THE NAPOLEON COLUMN

{Oct. 9, 1830.}

When with gigantic hand he placed,
For throne, on vassal Europe based,
That column's lofty height —
Pillar, in whose dread majesty,
In double immortality,
Glory and bronze unite!
Aye, when he built it that, some day,
Discord or war their course might stay,
Or here might break their car;
And in our streets to put to shame
Pigmies that bear the hero's name
Of Greek and Roman war.
It was a glorious sight; the world
His hosts had trod, with flags unfurled,
In veteran array;
Kings fled before him, forced to yield,
He, conqueror on each battlefield,
Their cannon bore away.
Then, with his victors back he came;
All France with booty teemed, her name
Was writ on sculptured stone;
And Paris cried with joy, as when
The parent bird comes home again
To th' eaglets left alone.
Into the furnace flame, so fast,
Were heaps of war-won metal cast,
The future monument!
His thought had formed the giant mould,
And piles of brass in the fire he rolled,
From hostile cannon rent.
When to the battlefield he came,
He grasped the guns spite tongues of flame,
And bore the spoil away.
This bronze to France's Rome he brought,
And to the founder said, "Is aught
Wanting for our array?"