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«То, что люблю, придет воздушным гостем…» 100 английских стихотворений (1837–1918) для начального чтения = 100 English Poems (1837–1918) - стр. 48

– She, to bite her mask’s black velvet – he, to finger on his sword,

While you sat and played Toccatas, stately at the clavichord?

VII

What? Those lesser thirds so plaintive, sixths diminished, sigh on sigh,

Told them something? Those suspensions, those solutions – “Must we die?”

Those commiserating sevenths – “Life might last! we can but try!

VIII

“Were you happy?” – “Yes.” – “And are you still as happy?” – “Yes. And you?”

– “Then, more kisses!” – “Did I stop them, when a million seemed so few?”

Hark, the dominant’s persistence till it must be answered to!

So, an octave struck the answer. Oh, they praised you, I dare say!

“Brave Galuppi! that was music! good alike at grave and gay!

“I can always leave off talking when I hear a master play!”

Then they left you for their pleasure: till in due time, one by one,

Some with lives that came to nothing, some with deeds as well undone,

Death stepped tacitly and took them where they never see the sun.

But when I sit down to reason, think to take my stand nor swerve,

While I triumph o’er a secret wrung from nature’s close reserve,

In you come with your cold music till I creep thro’ every nerve.

XII

Yes, you, like a ghostly cricket, creaking where a house was burned:

“Dust and ashes, dead and done with, Venice spent what Venice earned.

“The soul, doubtless, is immortal – where a soul can be discerned.

XIII

“Yours for instance: you know physics, something of geology,

“Mathematics are your pastime; souls shall rise in their degree;

“Butterflies may dread extinction, – you’ll not die, it cannot be!

XIV

“As for Venice and her people, merely born to bloom and drop,

“Here on earth they bore their fruitage, mirth and folly were the crop:

“What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?

“Dust and ashes!” So you creak it, and I want the heart to scold.

Dear dead women, with such hair, too – what’s become of all the gold

Used to hang and brush their bosoms? I feel chilly and grown old.

Two in the Campagna

(Двое в Кампанье[25])

I wonder do you feel today (я думаю/задаюсь вопросом: чувствуешь ли ты сегодня)

As I have felt since, hand in hand (как я чувствовал с тех пор, как, держась за руки),

We sat down on the grass, to stray (мы сели на траву, чтобы побродить)

In spirit better through the land (душой: «в духе» лучше по /этой/ местности),

This morn of Rome and May

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