The Lost Road and Other Writings. Christopher Tolkien

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СКАЧАТЬ no sail knows.

      Through gleaming vales it singing goes,

      where breathing keen on bent and briar

      The wind beyond the world’s end blows

      to living flame the Wandering Fire.

      The Wandering Fire with tongues of flame

      with light there kindles quick and clear

      The land of long-forgotten name:

      no man may ever anchor near;

      No steering star his hope may aim,

      for nether Night its marches drear,

      And waters wide no sail may tame,

      with shores encircled dark and sheer.

      Uncounted leagues it lies from here,

      and foam there flowers upon the Sea

      By cliffs of crystal carven clear

      on shining beaches blowing free.

      There blowing free unbraided hair

      is meshed with beams of Moon and Sun,

      And twined within those tresses fair

      a gold and silver sheen is spun,

      As fleet and white the feet go bare,

      and lissom limbs in dances run,

      Shimmering in the shining air:

      such loveliness to look upon

      No mortal man hath ever won,

      though foam upon the furthest sea

      He dared, or sought behind the Sun

      for winds unearthly flowing free.

      O! Shore beyond the Shadowy Sea!

      O! Land where still the Edhil are!

      O! Haven where my heart would be!

      the waves that beat upon thy bar

      For ever echo endlessly,

      when longing leads my thought afar,

      And rising west of West I see

      beyond the world the wayward Star,

      Than beacons bright in Gondobar

      more clear and keen, more fair and high:

      O! Star that shadow may not mar,

      nor ever darkness doom to die!

      In the final version of the poem that now follows the prose note concerning Ælfwine’s voyage is linked by an asterisk to the name Ælfwine in the title.

      THE SONG OF ÆLFWINE

      on seeing the uprising of Eärendil

      Eressëa! Eressëa!

      There elven-lights still gleaming lie

      On grass more green than in gardens here,

      On trees more tall that touch the sky

      With swinging leaves of silver clear.

      While world endures they will not die,

      Nor fade nor fall their timeless year,

      As morn unmeasured passes by

      O’er mead and mount and shining mere.

      When endless eve undimmed is near,

      O’er harp and chant in hidden choir

      A sudden voice up-soaring sheer

      In the wood awakes the wandering fire.

      With wandering fire the woodlands fill:

      In glades for ever green it glows;

      In a dell there dreaming niphredil

      As star awakened gleaming grows,

      And ever-murmuring musics spill,

      For there the fount immortal flows:

      Its water white leaps down the hill,

      By silver stairs it singing goes

      To the field of the unfading rose,

      Where breathing on the glowing briar

      The wind beyond the world’s end blows

      To living flame the wandering fire.

      The wandering fire with quickening flame

      Of living light illumines clear

      That land unknown by mortal name

      Beyond the shadow dark and drear

      And waters wild no ship may tame.

      No man may ever anchor near,

      To haven none his hope may aim

      Through starless night his way to steer.

      Uncounted leagues it lies from here:

      In wind on beaches blowing free

      Neath cliffs of carven crystal sheer

      The foam there flowers upon the Sea.

      O Shore beyond the Shadowy Sea!

      O Land where still the Edhil are!

      O Haven where my heart would be!

      The waves still beat upon thy bar,

      The white birds wheel; there flowers the Tree!

      Again I glimpse them long afar

      When rising west of West I see

      Beyond the world the wayward Star,

      Than beacons bright in Gondobar

      More fair and keen, more clear and high.

      O Star that shadow may not mar,

      Nor ever darkness doom to die.

      Ælfwine СКАЧАТЬ