第 3 节
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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