Muses, enough, cease your sobbing,
Pour out your grief into singing,
Sing about Dante soul-stirring,
Or play the flute, play with feeling.
Move on, annoying faun deities,
Music is dead in your screaming!
Haven’t you learned only lately
Beatrice exited Eden.
All white and strange Rose is lurking
In quiet chill of the evening...
What’s this? Additional warning?
Or is this plea for forgiving?
There lived a flustered artist
Used to the worldly deceptions –
Sinner, seducer... impious,
Beatrice was the exception.
Poet’s reclusive affection
Turned into luminous currents,
Turned into torrents of passion,
Tugging away at his heartstrings.
Muses, in this splendid sonnet
Render the riddle to setting,
Sing about Dante, be certain,
Gabriel Dante Rossetti.
Музы, рыдать перестаньте,
Грусть вашу в песнях излейте,
Спойте мне песню о Данте
Или сыграйте на флейте.
Дальше, докучные фавны,
Музыки нет в вашем кличе!
Знаете ль вы, что недавно
Бросила рай Беатриче,
Странная белая роза
В тихой вечерней прохладе…
Что это? Снова угроза
Или мольба о пощаде?
Жил беспокойный художник.
В мире лукавых обличий —
Грешник, развратник, безбожник,
Но он любил Беатриче.
Тайные думы поэта
В сердце его прихотливом
Стали потоками света,
Стали шумящим приливом.
Музы, в сонете-брильянте
Странную тайну Отметьте,
Спойте мне песню о Данте
И Габриеле Россетти.
«A gray Wolf seized a Sheep / And dragged it off into the woods with him. / But he hadn’t brought this guest along to keep / Him company: he tore the poor lamb limb from limb, / And then most ravenously munched, / So that the sheep-bones crackled, snapped, and crunched. Since there was s...»
«A Peasant had a Sheep indicted / And brought to trial for a heinous crime. / The judge, a Fox, was not one to waste time. / He told both parties: “Now, without getting excited / And shouting at each other, tell the Court just what took place. / Include all evidence material to the case....»
«The Snake asked Zeus to take away his hiss. / And let him have a songbird’s voice instead. / “I’m miserable,” he moaned. “I can’t go on like this. / Wherever I rear up my head. / They shy away from me like sin; / Your smaller creatures do, at least; / And as for any bigger be...»
«A Swan, a Sand-Crab, and a Pike, one day, / Made up their minds to pull a cart of hay. / When all three had been harnessed up, the Swan said, “Start!” / I hey labored mightily, but couldn’t budge the cart. / Why not ? It was a light load, and not awkward. / But the Swan kept trying t...»