And yet all quiet loves of friends, all joy

In all the piercing beauty of the world
I would give up--go blind forevermore,

Rather than have God blot from out my soul
Remembrance of your voice that said my name.

* * * * * *
For us no starlight stilled the April fields,

No birds awoke in darkling trees for us,
RIVERS TO THE SEA

Yet where we walked the city's street that night
Felt in our feet the singing fire of spring,

And in our path we left a trail of light
Soft as the phosphorescence of the sea

When night submerges in the vessel's wake
A heaven of unborn evanescent stars.

VIGNETTES OVERSEAS
I

Off Gibraltar
BEYOND the sleepy hills of Spain,

The sun goes down in yellow mist,
The sky is fresh with dewy stars

Above a sea of amethyst.
Yet in the city of my love

High noon burns all the heavens bare--
For him the happiness of light,

For me a delicate despair.
II

Off Algiers
Oh give me neither love nor tears,

Nor dreams that sear the night with fire,
Go lightly on your pilgrimage

Unburdened by desire.
RIVERS TO THE SEA

Forget me for a month, a year,
But, oh, beloved, think of me

When unexpected beauty burns
Like sudden sunlight on the sea.

III
Naples

Nisida and Prosida are laughing in the light,
Capri is a dewy flower lifting into sight,

Posilipo kneels and looks in the burnished sea,
Naples crowds her million roofs close as close can be;

Round about the mountain's crest a flag of smoke is hung--
Oh when God made Italy he was gay and young!

IV
Capri

When beauty grows too great to bear
How shall I ease me of its ache,

RIVERS TO THE SEA
For beauty more than bitterness

Makes the heart break.
Now while I watch the dreaming sea

With isles like flowers against her breast,
Only one voice in all the world

Could give me rest.
V

Night Song at Amalfi
I asked the heaven of stars

What I should give my love--
It answered me with silence,

Silence above.
I asked the darkened sea

Down where the fishers go--
It answered me with silence,

Silence below.
Oh, I could give him weeping,

Or I could give him song--
RIVERS TO THE SEA

But how can I give silence
My whole life long?

VI
Ruins of Paestum

On lowlands where the temples lie
The marsh-grass mingles with the flowers,

Only the little songs of birds
Link the unbroken hours.

So in the end, above my heart
Once like the city wild and gay,

The slow white stars will pass by night,
The swift brown birds by day.

VII
Rome

Oh for the rising moon
Over the roofs of Rome,

And swallows in the dusk
Circling a darkened dome!

RIVERS TO THE SEA
Oh for the measured dawns

That pass with folded wings--
How can I let them go

With unremembered things?
VIII

Florence
The bells ring over the Anno,

Midnight, the long, long chime;
Here in the quivering darkness

I am afraid of time.
Oh, gray bells cease your tolling,

Time takes too much from me,
And yet to rock and river

He gives eternity.
IX

Villa Serbelloni, Bellaggio
The fountain shivers lightly in the rain,

The laurels drip, the fading roses fall,
RIVERS TO THE SEA

The marble satyr plays a mournful strain
That leaves the rainy fragrance musical.

Oh dripping laurel, Phoebus sacred tree,
Would that swift Daphne's lot might come to me,

Then would I still my soul and for an hour
Change to a laurel in the glancing shower.

X
Stresa

The moon grows out of the hills
A yellow flower,

The lake is a dreamy bride
Who waits her hour.

Beauty has filled my heart,
It can hold no more,

It is full, as the lake is full,
From shore to shore.

RIVERS TO THE SEA
XI

Hamburg
The day that I come home,

What will you find to say,--
Words as light as foam

With laughter light as spray?
Yet say what words you will

The day that I come home;
I shall hear the whole deep ocean

Beating under the foam.
V

SAPPHO
SAPPHO

I
MIDNIGHT, and in the darkness not a sound,

So, with hushed breathing, sleeps the autumn night;
Only the white immortal stars shall know,

Here in the house with the low-lintelled door,
How, for the last time, I have lit the lamp.

I think you are not whollycareless now,
Walls that have sheltered me so many an hour,

Bed that has brought me ecstasy and sleep,
Floors that have borne me when a gale of joy

Lifted my soul and made me half a god.
Farewell! Across the threshold many feet

Shall pass, but never Sappho's feet again.
Girls shall come in whom love has made aware

Of all their swaying beauty--they shall sing,
RIVERS TO THE SEA

But never Sappho's voice, like golden fire,
Shall seek for heaven thru your echoing rafters.

There shall be swallows bringing back the spring
Over the long blue meadows of the sea,

And south-wind playing on the reeds of rain,
But never Sappho's whisper in the night,

Never her love-cry when the lover comes.
Farewell! I close the door and make it fast.

* * * * * *
The little street lies meek beneath the moon,

Running, as rivers run, to meet the sea.
I too go seaward and shall not return.

Oh garlands on the doorposts that I pass,
Woven of asters and of autumn leaves,

I make a prayer for you: Cypris be kind,
That every lover may be given love.

I shall not hasten lest the paving stones
Should echo with my sandals and awake

Those who are warm beneath the cloak of sleep,
Lest they should rise and see me and should say,

RIVERS TO THE SEA
"Whither goes Sappho lonely in the night?"

Whither goes Sappho? Whither all men go,
But they go driven, straining back with fear,

And Sappho goes as lightly as a leaf
Blown from brown autumn forests to the sea.

* * * * * *
Here on the rock Zeus lifted from the waves,

I shall await the waking of the dawn,
Lying beneath the weight of dark as one

Lies breathless, till the lover shall awake.
And with the sun the sea shall cover me--

I shall be less than the dissolving foam
Murmuring and melting on the ebbing tide;

I shall be less than spindrift, less than shells;
And yet I shall be greater than the gods,

For destiny no more can bow my soul
As rain bows down the watch-fires on the hills.

Yes, if my soul escape it shall aspire
To the white heaven as flame that has its will.

I go not bitterly, not dumb with pain,
RIVERS TO THE SEA

Not broken by the ache of love--I go
As one grown tired lies down and hopes to sleep.

Yet they shall say: "It was for Cercolas;
She died because she could not bear her love."

They shall remember how we used to walk
Here on the cliff beneath the oleanders

• delicate [´delikət] a.精美的；微妙的 (初中英语单词)
• lightly [´laitli] ad.轻微地，稍微 (初中英语单词)
• beloved [bi´lʌvd] a.为....所爱的 n.爱人 (初中英语单词)
• sunlight [´sʌnlait] n.日光 (初中英语单词)
• fountain [´fauntin] n.泉水；源泉；根源 (初中英语单词)
• marble [´mɑ:bəl] n.大理石 a.大理石的 (初中英语单词)
• sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
• laughter [´lɑ:ftə] n.笑，笑声 (初中英语单词)
• immortal [i´mɔ:təl] a.不死的n.不朽的人物 (初中英语单词)
• wholly [´həul-li] ad.完全，十足；统统 (初中英语单词)
• careless [´keəlis] a.粗心的；草率的 (初中英语单词)
• whisper [´wispə] v.耳语 n.低语；沙沙声 (初中英语单词)
• hasten [´heisən] vt.催促；促进 vi.赶紧 (初中英语单词)
• lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
• driven [´driv(ə)n] drive 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• bitterly [´bitəli] ad.悲痛地；憎恨地 (初中英语单词)
• sleepy [´sli:pi] a.困的，想睡的 (高中英语单词)
• unexpected [ʌniks´pektid] a.突然的；意外的 (高中英语单词)
• fragrance [´freigrəns] n.芬芳，芳香 (高中英语单词)
• laurel [´lɔrəl] n.月桂树(叶)；桂冠 (高中英语单词)
• ecstasy [´ekstəsi] n.狂喜；出神，入迷 (高中英语单词)
• threshold [´θreʃhəuld] n.门槛；入门；开端 (高中英语单词)
• paving [´peiviŋ] n.铺砌；铺面 (高中英语单词)
• breathless [´breθlis] a.屏息的 (高中英语单词)
• destiny [´destini] n.命运 (高中英语单词)
• unbroken [ʌn´brəukən] a.未破的；不间断的 (英语四级单词)
• mournful [´mɔ:nful] a.令人沮丧的 (英语四级单词)
• piercing [´piəsiŋ] a.刺(贯)穿的；尖刻的 (英语六级单词)
• starlight [´stɑ:lait] n.星光 (英语六级单词)
• unborn [,ʌn´bɔ:n] a.未生的；将来的 (英语六级单词)
• phoebus [´fi:bəs] n.太阳神 (英语六级单词)
• dreamy [´dri:mi] a.心不在焉的；朦胧的 (英语六级单词)
• seaward [´si:wəd] a.&ad.朝海(的) (英语六级单词)