По всем вопросам обращайтесь на: info@litportal.ru
(©) 2003-2024.
✖
The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats. Volume 3 of 8. The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the Stars
Настройки чтения
Размер шрифта
Высота строк
Поля
[He calls through the door.
May we be well remembered in your prayers!
[The COUNTESS CATHLEEN wakes, and comes to the door of the oratory. The MERCHANTS descend into the room again. She stands at the top of the stone steps.
CATHLEEN
What would you, sirs?
FIRST MERCHANT
We are two merchant men,
New come from foreign lands. We bring you news.
Forgive our sudden entry: the great door
Was open, we came in to seek a face.
CATHLEEN
The door stands always open to receive,
With kindly welcome, starved and sickly folk,
Or any who would fly the woful times.
Merchants, you bring me news?
FIRST MERCHANT
We saw a man
Heavy with sickness in the Bog of Allan,
Whom you had bid buy cattle. Near Fair Head
We saw your grain ships lying all becalmed
In the dark night, and not less still than they
Burned all their mirrored lanthorns in the sea.
CATHLEEN
My thanks to God, to Mary, and the angels,
I still have bags of money, and can buy
Meal from the merchants who have stored it up,
To prosper on the hunger of the poor.
You have been far, and know the signs of things:
When will this yellow vapour no more hang
And creep about the fields, and this great heat
Vanish away – and grass show its green shoots?
FIRST MERCHANT
There is no sign of change – day copies day,
Green things are dead – the cattle too are dead,
Or dying – and on all the vapour hangs
And fattens with disease and glows with heat.
In you is all the hope of all the land.
CATHLEEN
And heard you of the demons who buy souls?
FIRST MERCHANT
There are some men who hold they have wolves’ heads,
And say their limbs, dried by the infinite flame,
Have all the speed of storms; others again
Say they are gross and little; while a few
Will have it they seem much as mortals are,
But tall and brown and travelled, like us, lady.
Yet all agree a power is in their looks
That makes men bow, and flings a casting-net
About their souls, and that all men would go
And barter those poor flames – their spirits – only
You bribe them with the safety of your gold.
CATHLEEN
Praise be to God, to Mary, and the angels,
That I am wealthy. Wherefore do they sell?
FIRST MERCHANT
The demons give a hundred crowns and more
For a poor soul like his who lies asleep
By your great door under the porter’s niche;
A little soul not worth a hundred pence.
But, for a soul like yours, I heard them say,
They would give five hundred thousand crowns and more.
CATHLEEN
How can a heap of crowns pay for a soul?
Is the green grave so terrible a thing?
FIRST MERCHANT
Some sell because the money gleams, and some
Because they are in terror of the grave,
And some because their neighbours sold before,
And some because there is a kind of joy
In casting hope away, in losing joy,
In ceasing all resistance, in at last
Opening one’s arms to the eternal flames,
In casting all sails out upon the wind:
To this – full of the gaiety of the lost —
Would all folk hurry if your gold were gone.
May we be well remembered in your prayers!
[The COUNTESS CATHLEEN wakes, and comes to the door of the oratory. The MERCHANTS descend into the room again. She stands at the top of the stone steps.
CATHLEEN
What would you, sirs?
FIRST MERCHANT
We are two merchant men,
New come from foreign lands. We bring you news.
Forgive our sudden entry: the great door
Was open, we came in to seek a face.
CATHLEEN
The door stands always open to receive,
With kindly welcome, starved and sickly folk,
Or any who would fly the woful times.
Merchants, you bring me news?
FIRST MERCHANT
We saw a man
Heavy with sickness in the Bog of Allan,
Whom you had bid buy cattle. Near Fair Head
We saw your grain ships lying all becalmed
In the dark night, and not less still than they
Burned all their mirrored lanthorns in the sea.
CATHLEEN
My thanks to God, to Mary, and the angels,
I still have bags of money, and can buy
Meal from the merchants who have stored it up,
To prosper on the hunger of the poor.
You have been far, and know the signs of things:
When will this yellow vapour no more hang
And creep about the fields, and this great heat
Vanish away – and grass show its green shoots?
FIRST MERCHANT
There is no sign of change – day copies day,
Green things are dead – the cattle too are dead,
Or dying – and on all the vapour hangs
And fattens with disease and glows with heat.
In you is all the hope of all the land.
CATHLEEN
And heard you of the demons who buy souls?
FIRST MERCHANT
There are some men who hold they have wolves’ heads,
And say their limbs, dried by the infinite flame,
Have all the speed of storms; others again
Say they are gross and little; while a few
Will have it they seem much as mortals are,
But tall and brown and travelled, like us, lady.
Yet all agree a power is in their looks
That makes men bow, and flings a casting-net
About their souls, and that all men would go
And barter those poor flames – their spirits – only
You bribe them with the safety of your gold.
CATHLEEN
Praise be to God, to Mary, and the angels,
That I am wealthy. Wherefore do they sell?
FIRST MERCHANT
The demons give a hundred crowns and more
For a poor soul like his who lies asleep
By your great door under the porter’s niche;
A little soul not worth a hundred pence.
But, for a soul like yours, I heard them say,
They would give five hundred thousand crowns and more.
CATHLEEN
How can a heap of crowns pay for a soul?
Is the green grave so terrible a thing?
FIRST MERCHANT
Some sell because the money gleams, and some
Because they are in terror of the grave,
And some because their neighbours sold before,
And some because there is a kind of joy
In casting hope away, in losing joy,
In ceasing all resistance, in at last
Opening one’s arms to the eternal flames,
In casting all sails out upon the wind:
To this – full of the gaiety of the lost —
Would all folk hurry if your gold were gone.
Другие электронные книги автора William Butler Yeats
Последний отзыв
интересный учебник