Читать онлайн «The City Of Dreadful Night»

Автор Джеймс Томсон

James Thomson

The City of Dreadful Night

Per me si va nella citta dolente. —Dante Poi di tanto adoprar, di tanti motiD'ogni celeste, ogni terrena cosa,Girando senza posa,Per tornar sempre la donde son mosse;Uso alcuno, alcun fruttoIndovinar non so. Sola nel mondo eterna, a cui si volveOgni creata cosa,In te, morte, si posaNostra ignuda natura;Lieta no, ma sicuraDell' antico dolor . . . Pero ch' esser beatoNega ai mortali e nega a' morti il fato. —Leopardi

PROEM

  Lo, thus, as prostrate, "In the dust I write    My heart's deep languor and my soul's sad tears. "  Yet why evoke the spectres of black night    To blot the sunshine of exultant years?  Why disinter dead faith from mouldering hidden?  Why break the seals of mute despair unbidden,    And wail life's discords into careless ears?  Because a cold rage seizes one at whiles    To show the bitter old and wrinkled truth  Stripped naked of all vesture that beguiles,    False dreams, false hopes, false masks and modes of youth;  Because it gives some sense of power and passion  In helpless innocence to try to fashion    Our woe in living words howe'er uncouth.
  Surely I write not for the hopeful young,    Or those who deem their happiness of worth,  Or such as pasture and grow fat among    The shows of life and feel nor doubt nor dearth,  Or pious spirits with a God above them  To sanctify and glorify and love them,    Or sages who foresee a heaven on earth.   For none of these I write, and none of these    Could read the writing if they deigned to try;  So may they flourish in their due degrees,    On our sweet earth and in their unplaced sky.   If any cares for the weak words here written,  It must be some one desolate, Fate-smitten,    Whose faith and hopes are dead, and who would die.   Yes, here and there some weary wanderer    In that same city of tremendous night,  Will understand the speech and feel a stir    Of fellowship in all-disastrous fight;  "I suffer mute and lonely, yet another  Uplifts his voice to let me know a brother    Travels the same wild paths though out of sight. "  O sad Fraternity, do I unfold    Your dolorous mysteries shrouded from of yore?  Nay, be assured; no secret can be told    To any who divined it not before:  None uninitiate by many a presage  Will comprehend the language of the message,    Although proclaimed aloud for evermore.

I