第 6 节
作者:淘气      更新:2024-11-30 11:16      字数:9320
  Even so the timorous yelping of the hounds
  Appals her senses and her spirit confounds。
  For now she knows it is no gentle chase;
  But the blunt boar; rough bear; or lion proud;
  Because the cry remaineth in one place;
  Where fearfully the dogs exclaim aloud。
  Finding their enemy to be so curst;
  They all strain court'sy who shall cope him first。
  This dismal cry rings sadly in her car;
  Through which it enters to surprise her heart;
  Who; overcome by doubt and bloodless fear;
  With cold…pale weakness numbs each feeling part;
  Like soldiers; when their captain once doth yield;
  They basely fly and dare not stay the field。
  Thus stands she in a trembling ecstasy;
  Till; cheering up her senses all dismayed;
  She tells them 'tis a causeless fantasy;
  And childish error; that they are afraid;
  Bids them leave quaking; bids them fear no more;
  And with that word she spied the hunted boar;
  Whose frothy mouth; bepainted all with red;
  Like milk and blood being mingled both together;
  A second fear through all her sinews spread;
  Which madly hurries her she knows not whither:
  This way she runs; and now she will no further;
  But back retires to rate the boar for murther。
  A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways;
  She treads the path that she untreads again;
  Her more than haste is mated with delays;
  Like the proceedings of a drunken brain;
  Full of respects; yet nought at all respecting;
  In hand with all things; nought at all effecting。
  Here kennelled in a brake she finds a hound;
  And asks the weary caitiff for his master;
  And there another licking of his wound;
  'Gainst venomed sores the only sovereign plaster;
  And here she meets another sadly scowling;
  To whom she speaks; and he replies with howling。
  When he hath ceased his ill…resounding noise;
  Another flap…mouthed mourner; black and grim;
  Against the welkin volleys out his voice;
  Another and another answer him;
  Clapping their proud tails to the ground below;
  Shaking their scratched ears; bleeding as they go。
  Look how the world's poor people are amazed
  At apparitions; signs and prodigies;
  Whereon with fearful eyes they long have gazed;
  Infusing them with dreadful prophecies;
  So she at these sad signs draws up her breath;
  And; sighing it again; exclaims on Death。
  'Hard…favoured tyrant; ugly; meagre; lean;
  Hateful divorce of love'… thus chides she Death…
  'Grim…grinning ghost; earth's worm; what dost thou mean
  To stifle beauty and to steal his breath
  Who when he lived; his breath and beauty set
  Gloss on the rose; smell to the violet?
  'If he be dead… O no; it cannot be;
  Seeing his beauty; thou shouldst strike at it…
  O yes; it may; thou hast no eyes to see;
  But hatefully at random dost thou hit。
  Thy mark is feeble age; but thy false dart
  Mistakes that aim; and cleaves an infant's heart。
  'Hadst thou but bid beware; then he had spoke;
  And; hearing him; thy power had lost his power。
  The Destinies will curse thee for this stroke;
  They bid thee crop a weed; thou pluck'st a flower。
  Love's golden arrow at him should have fled;
  And not Death's ebon dart; to strike him dead。
  'Dost thou drink tears; that thou provokest such weeping?
  What may a heavy groan advantage thee?
  Why hast thou cast into eternal sleeping
  Those eyes that taught all other eyes to see?
  Now Nature cares not for thy mortal vigour;
  Since her best work is ruined with thy rigour。'
  Here overcome as one full of despair;
  She vailed her eyelids; who; like sluices; stopped
  The crystal tide that from her two cheeks fair
  In the sweet channel of her bosom dropped;
  But through the flood…gates breaks the silver rain;
  And with his strong course opens them again。
  O; how her eyes and tears did lend and borrow!
  Her eye seen in the tears; tears in her eye;
  Both crystals; where they viewed each other's sorrow;
  Sorrow that friendly sighs sought still to dry;
  But like a stormy day; now wind; now rain;
  Sighs dry her cheeks; tears make them wet again。
  Variable passions throng her constant woe;
  As striving who should best become her grief;
  All entertained; each passion labours so
  That every present sorrow seemeth chief;
  But none is best。 Then join they all together;
  Like many clouds consulting for foul weather。
  By this; far off she hears some huntsman holla;
  A nurse's song ne'er pleased her babe so well。
  The dire imagination she did follow
  This sound of hope doth labour to expel;
  For now reviving joy bids her rejoice;
  And flatters her it is Adonis' voice。
  Whereat her tears began to turn their tide;
  Being prisoned in her eye like pearls in glass;
  Yet sometimes falls an orient drop beside;
  Which her cheek melts; as scorning it should pass
  To wash the foul face of the sluttish ground;
  Who is but drunken when she seemeth drowned。
  O hard…believing love; how strange it seems
  Not to believe; and yet too credulous!
  Thy weal and woe are both of them extremes;
  Despair; and hope makes thee ridiculous:
  The one doth flatter thee in thoughts unlikely;
  In likely thoughts the other kills thee quickly。
  Now she unweaves the web that she hath wrought;
  Adonis lives; and Death is not to blame;
  It was not she that called him all to nought。
  Now she adds honours to his hateful name;
  She clepes him king of graves; and grave for kings;
  Imperious supreme of all mortal things。
  'No; no;' quoth she; 'sweet Death; I did but jest;
  Yet pardon me; I felt a kind of fear
  When as I met the boar; that bloody beast;
  Which knows no pity; but is still severe。
  Then; gentle shadow… truth I must confess…
  I railed on thee; fearing my love's decease。
  ''Tis not my fault: the boar provoked my tongue;
  Be wreaked on him; invisible commander;
  'Tis he; foul creature; that hath done thee wrong;
  I did but act; he's author of thy slander。
  Grief hath two tongues; and never woman yet
  Could rule them both withbut ten women's wit。'
  Thus; hoping that Adonis is alive;
  Her rash suspect she doth extenuate;
  And that his beauty may the better thrive;
  With Death she humbly doth insinuate;
  Tells him of trophies; statues; tombs; and stories
  His victories; his triumphs and his glories。
  'O Jove;' quoth she; 'how much a fool was I
  To be of such a weak and silly mind
  To wail his death who lives and must not die
  Till mutual overthrow of mortal kind!
  For he being dead; with him is Beauty slain;
  And; Beauty dead; black Chaos comes again。
  'Fie; fie; fond love; thou art as full of fear
  As one with treasure laden; hemmed with thieves;
  Trifles unwitnessed with eye or ear
  Thy coward heart with false bethinking grieves。'
  Even at this word she hears a merry horn;
  Whereat she leaps that was but late forlorn。
  As falcons to the lure; away she flies;
  The grass stoops not; she treads on it so light;
  And in her haste unfortunately spies
  The foul boar's conquest on her fair delight;
  Which seen; her eyes; as murd'red with the view;
  Like stars ashamed of day; themselves withdrew;
  Or as the snail; whose tender horns being hit;
  Shrinks backward in his shelly cave with pain;
  And there all smoth'red up in shade doth sit;
  Long after fearing to creep forth again;
  So at his bloody view her eyes are fled
  Into the deep…dark cabins of her head;
  Where they resign their office and their light
  To the disposing of her troubled brain;
  Who bids them still consort with ugly night;
  And never wound the heart with looks again;
  Who; like a king perplexed in his throne;
  By their suggestion gives a deadly groan;
  Whereat each tributary subject quakes;
  As when the wind; imprisoned in the ground;
  Struggling for passage; earth's foundation shakes;
  Which with cold terror doth men's minds confound。
  This mutiny each part doth so surprise;
  That from their dark beds once more leap her eyes;
  And being opened; threw unwilling light
  Upon the wide wound that the boar had trenched
  In his soft flank; whose wonted lily white
  With purple tears that his wound wept was drenched:
  No flower was nigh; no grass; herb; leaf or weed;
  But stole his blood and seemed with him to bleed。
  This solemn sympathy poor Venus noteth;
  Over one shoulder doth she hang her head;
  Dumbly she passions; franticly she doteth;
  She thinks he could not die; he is not dead。
  Her voice is stopped; her joints forget to bow;
  Her eyes are mad that they have wept till now。
  Upon his hurt she looks so steadfastly