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名人诗歌|Rabbi Ben Ezra

来源:www.4peix.com 2024-04-21
by Robert Browning

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in His hand

Who saith, 'A whole I planned,

Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!'

Not that, amassing1 flowers,

Youth sighed, 'Which rose make ours,

Which lily leave and then as best recall?'

Not that, admiring stars,

It yearned2, 'Nor Jove, nor Mars;

Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends3 them all!'

Not for such hopes and fears

Annulling4 youth's brief years,

Do I remonstrate5: folly6 wide the mark!

Rather I prize the doubt

Low kinds exist without,

Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.

Poor vaunt of life indeed,

Were man but formed to feed

On joy, to solely7 seek and find and feast;

Such feasting ended, then

As sure an end to men;

Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets8 doubt the maw-crammed beast?

Rejoice we are allied9

To That which doth provide

And not partake, effect and not receive!

A spark disturbs our clod;

Nearer we hold of God

Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe.

Then, welcome each rebuff

That turns earth's smoothness rough,

Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!

Be our joys three-parts pain!

Strive, and hold cheap the strain;

Learn, nor account the pang10; dare, never grudge11 the throe!

For thence,-a paradox12

Which comforts while it mocks,

Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:

What I aspired13 to be,

And was not, comforts me:

A brute14 I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.

What is he but a brute

Whose flesh has soul to suit,

Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?

To man, propose this test

Thy body at its best,

How far can that project thy soul on its lone15 way?

Yet gifts should prove their use:

I own the Past profuse16

Of power each side, perfection every turn:

Eyes, ears took in their dole17,

Brain treasured up the whole;

Should not the heart beat once 'How good to live and learn'?

Not once beat 'Praise be thine!

I see the whole design,

I, who saw power, see now love perfect too:

Perfect I call thy plan:

Thanks that I was a man!

Maker18, remake, complete,-I trust what Thou shalt do!'

For pleasant is this flesh;

Our soul, in its rose-mesh

Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns19 for rest:

Would we some prize might hold

To match those manifold

Possessions of the brute,-gain most, as we did best!

Let us not always say,

'Spite of this flesh to-day

I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!'

As the bird wings and sings,

Let us cry, 'All good things

Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!'

Therefore I summon age

To grant youth's heritage,

Life's struggle having so far reached its term:

Thence shall I pass, approved

A man, for aye removed

From the developed brute; a god though in the germ.

And I shall thereupon

Take rest, ere I be gone

once more on my adventure brave and new:

Fearless and unperplexed,

When I wage battle next,

What weapons to select, what armour20 to indue.

Youth ended, I shall try

My gain or loss thereby21;

Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold:

And I shall weigh the same,

Give life its praise or blame:

Young, all lay in dispute; I shall know, being old.

For, note when evening shuts,

A certain moment cuts

The deed off, calls the glory from the grey:

A whisper from the west

Shoots-'Add this to the rest,

Take it and try its worth: here dies another day.'

So, still within this life,

Though lifted o'er its strife22,

Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last,

'This rage was right i' the main,

That acquiescence24 vain:

The Future I may face now I have proved the Past.'

For more is not reserved

To man, with soul just nerved

To act to-morrow what he learns to-day:

Here, work enough to watch

The Master work, and catch

Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play.

As it was better, youth

Should strive, through acts uncouth25,

Toward making, than repose26 on aught found made:

So, better, age, exempt27

From strife, should know, than tempt28

Further. Thou waitedst age: wait death nor be afraid!

Enough now, if the Right

And Good and Infinite

Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own,

With knowledge absolute,

Subject to no dispute

From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel alone.

Be there, for once and all,

Severed29 great minds from small,

Announced to each his station in the Past!

Was I, the world arraigned30,

Were they, my soul disdained31,

Right? Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last!

Now, who shall arbitrate?

Ten men love what I hate,

Shun32 what I follow, slight what I receive;

Ten, who in ears and eyes

Match me: we all surmise33,

They, this thing, and I, that: whom shall my soul believe?

Not on the vulgar mass

Called 'work', must sentence pass,

Things done, that took the eye and had the price;

O'er which, from level stand,

The low world laid its hand,

Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice:

But all, the world's coarse thumb

And finger failed to plumb34,

So passed in making up the main account;

All instinct immature35,

All purposes unsure,

That weighed not as his work, yet swelled36 the man's amount:

Thoughts hardly to be packed

Into a narrow act,

Fancies that broke through language and escaped;

All I could never be,

All, men ignored in me,

This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher37 shaped.

Ay, note that Potter's wheel,

That metaphor38! and feel

Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay,-

Thou, to whom fools propound39,

When the wine makes its round,

'Since life fleets, all is change; the Past gone, seize to-day!'

Fool! All that is, at all,

Lasts ever, past recall;

Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure:

What entered into thee,

That was, is, and shall be:

Time's wheel runs back or sTOPs: Potter and clay endure.

He fixed40 thee mid41 this dance

Of plastic circumstance,

This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest:

Machinery42 just meant

To give thy souls its bent43,

Try thee and turn thee forth44, sufficiently45 impressed.

What though the earlier grooves46

Which ran the laughing loves

Around thy base, no longer pause and press?

What though about thy rim47,

Skull-things in order grim

Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress?

Look not thou down but up!

To uses of a cup,

The festal board, lamp's flash, and trumpet's peal48,

The new wine's foaming49 flow,

The Master's lips a-glow!

Thou, heaven's consummate50 cup, what need'st thou with earth's wheel?

But I need, now as then,

Thee, God, who mouldest men;

And since, not even while the whirl was worst,

Did I-to the wheel of life

With shapes and colours rife23,

Bound dizzily,-mistake my end, to slake51 Thy thirst:

So, take and use Thy work,

Amend52 what flaws may lurk53,

What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim!

My times be in Thy hand!

Perfect the cup as planned!

Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same!


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