Волшебница Шалотт и другие стихотворения - [30]

Of cataract seas that snap

The three decker’s oaken spine

Athwart the ledges of rock,

Here on the Breton strand!

РАКОВИНА

I

Вот, на песке морском,

Раковина, посмотри —

Крохотная вещица,

Не крупней ноготка,

С тоненьким завитком,

Розовая внутри,

Как чудесно искрится,

Радужна и хрупка!

II

Мог бы назвать ученый

Кличкой ее мудреной,

С книжного взяв листа;

Но и не нареченной

Имя ей — красота.

III

Тот, кто в ней обитал,

Видно, покинул в тревоге

Домик уютный свой;

Долго ли он простоял

Возле своих дверей,

Рожками шевеля

На жемчужном пороге,

Прежде, чем с головой

Кануть в простор морей?

IV

Тонкая — даже дитя

Пяткой его сломает,

Крохотная — но как чудно,

Дивно сотворена!

Хрупкая — но волна,

Что поднимает шутя

Трехмачтовое судно

И о риф разбивает, —

Сладить с ней не вольна.

Г. Кружков

GODIVA

I waited for the train at Coventry;

I hung with grooms and porters on the bridge,

To watch the three tall spires; and there I shaped

The city’s ancient legend into this:

Not only we, the latest seed of Time,

New men, that in the flying of a wheel

Cry down the past, not only we, that prate

Of rights and wrongs, have loved the people well,

And loathed to see them overtax’d; but she

Did more, and underwent, and overcame,

The woman of a thousand summers back,

Godiva, wife to that grim Earl, who ruled

In Coventry: for when he laid a tax

Upon his town, and all the mothers brought

Their children, clamouring, ‘If we pay, we starve!’

She sought her lord, and found him, where he strode

About the hall, among his dogs, alone,

His beard a foot before him, and his hair

A yard behind. She told him of their tears,

And pray’d him, ‘If they pay this tax, they starve.’

Whereat he stared, replying, half-amazed,

‘You would not let your little finger ache

For such as these?’ — ‘But I would die,’ said she.

He laugh’d, and swore by Peter and by Paul:

Then fillip’d at the diamond in her ear;

‘Oh ay, ay, ay, you talk!’ — ‘Alas!’ she said,

‘But prove me what it is I would not do.’

And from a heart as rough as Esau’s hand,

He answer’d, ‘Ride you naked thro’ the town,

And I repeal it;’ and nodding, as in scorn,

He parted, with great strides among his dogs.

So left alone, the passions of her mind,

As winds from all the compass shift and blow,

Made war upon each other for an hour,

Till pity won. She sent a herald forth,

And bade him cry, with sound of trumpet, all

The hard condition; but that she would loose

The people: therefore, as they loved her well,

From then till noon no foot should pace the street,

No eye look down, she passing; but that all

Should keep within, door shut, and window barr’d.

Then fled she to her inmost bower, and there

Unclasp’d the wedded eagles of her belt,

The grim Earl’s gift; but ever at a breath

She linger’d, looking like a summer moon

Half-dipt in cloud: anon she shook her head,

And shower’d the rippled ringlets to her knee;

Unclad herself in haste; adown the stair

Stole on; and, like a creeping sunbeam, slid

From pillar unto pillar, until she reach’d

The gateway; there she found her palfrey trapt

In purple blazon’d with armorial gold.

Then she rode forth, clothed on with chastity:

The deep air listen’d round her as she rode,

And all the low wind hardly breathed for fear.

The little wide-mouth’d heads upon the spout

Had cunning eyes to see: the barking cur

Made her cheek flame: her palfrey’s footfall shot

Light horrors thro’ her pulses: the blind walls

Were full of chinks and holes; and overhead

Fantastic gables, crowding, stared: but she

Not less thro’ all bore up, till, last, she saw

The white-flower’d elder-thicket from the field

Gleam thro’ the Gothic archway in the wall.

Then she rode back, clothed on with chastity:

And one low churl, compact of thankless earth,

The fatal byword of all years to come,

Boring a little auger-hole in fear,

Peep’d-but his eyes, before they had their will,

Were shrivell’d into darkness in his head,

And dropt before him. So the Powers, who wait

On noble deeds, cancell’d a sense misused;

And she, that knew not, pass’d: and all at once,

With twelve great shocks of sound, the shameless noon

Was clash’d and hammer’d from a hundred towers,

One after one: but even then she gain’d

Her bower; whence reissuing, robed and crown’d,

To meet her lord, she took the tax away

And built herself an everlasting name.

ГОДИВА

Я в Ковентри ждал поезда, толкаясь

В толпе народа по мосту, смотрел

На три высоких башни — и в поэму

Облек одну из древних местных былей.

Не мы одни — плод новых дней, последний

Посев Времен, в своем нетерпеливом

Стремленье вдаль злословящий Былое, —

Не мы одни, с чьих праздных уст не сходят

Добро и Зло, сказать имеем право,

Что мы народу преданны: Годива,

Супруга графа Ковентри, что правил

Назад тому почти тысячелетье,

Любила свой народ и претерпела

Не меньше нас. Когда налогом тяжким

Граф обложил свой город, и пред замком

С детьми столпились матери, и громко

Звучали вопли: «Подать нам грозит

Голодной смертью!» — в графские покои,

Где граф, с своей аршинной бородой

И подсаженной гривою, по залу

Шагал среди собак, вошла Годива

И, рассказав о воплях, повторила

Мольбу народа: «Подати грозят

Голодной смертью!» Граф от изумленья

Раскрыл глаза. «Но вы за эту сволочь