Из полного собрания бессмыслиц (с параллельным текстом на английском языке). Эдвард Лир

Чтение книги онлайн.

      As soon as he saw our Daughter Dell,

      In violent love that Crane King fell,—

      On seeing her wadding form so fair,

      With a wreath of shrimps in her shot white

                                                                  hair.

      And before the end of the next long day,

      Our Dell had given her heart away;

      For the King of the Cranes had won that

                                                                  heart,

      With a Crocodile’s egg and a large fish-tart.

      She vowed to marry the King of the Cranes,

      Leaving the Nile for stranger plains;

      And away they flew in a gathering crowd

      Of endless birds in a lengthening cloud.

      Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

      We think no Birds so happy as we!

      Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

      We think so then, and we thought so still!

      And far away in the twilight sky,

      We heard them singing a lessening cry,—

      Farther and farther till out of sight,

      And we stood alone in the silent night!

      Often since, in the nights of June,

      We sit on the sand and watch the moon;—

      She has gone to the great Gromboolian plain,

      And we probably never shall meet again!

      Oft, in the long still nights of June,

      We sit on the rocks and watch the moon;—

      She dwells by the streams of the Chankly

                                                                  Bore,

      And we probably never shall see her more.

      Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

      We think no Birds so happy as we!

      Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

      We think so then, and we thought so still!