3 books to know Juvenalian Satire. Lord Byron
Чтение книги онлайн.

Читать онлайн книгу 3 books to know Juvenalian Satire - Lord Byron страница 36

Название: 3 books to know Juvenalian Satire

Автор: Lord Byron

Издательство: Bookwire

Жанр: Языкознание

Серия: 3 books to know

isbn: 9783967994353

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ

      He sought in the slave-market too, and dish'd

      Full many a morsel for that Turkish trade,

      By which, no doubt, a good deal may be made.

      He was a Greek, and on his isle had built

      (One of the wild and smaller Cyclades)

      A very handsome house from out his guilt,

      And there he lived exceedingly at ease;

      Heaven knows what cash he got or blood he spilt,

      A sad old fellow was he, if you please;

      But this I know, it was a spacious building,

      Full of barbaric carving, paint, and gilding.

      He had an only daughter, call'd Haidee,

      The greatest heiress of the Eastern Isles;

      Besides, so very beautiful was she,

      Her dowry was as nothing to her smiles:

      Still in her teens, and like a lovely tree

      She grew to womanhood, and between whiles

      Rejected several suitors, just to learn

      How to accept a better in his turn.

      And walking out upon the beach, below

      The cliff, towards sunset, on that day she found,

      Insensible,—not dead, but nearly so,—

      Don Juan, almost famish'd, and half drown'd;

      But being naked, she was shock'd, you know,

      Yet deem'd herself in common pity bound,

      As far as in her lay, 'to take him in,

      A stranger' dying, with so white a skin.

      But taking him into her father's house

      Was not exactly the best way to save,

      But like conveying to the cat the mouse,

      Or people in a trance into their grave;

      Because the good old man had so much 'nous,'

      Unlike the honest Arab thieves so brave,

      He would have hospitably cured the stranger,

      And sold him instantly when out of danger.

      And therefore, with her maid, she thought it best

      (A virgin always on her maid relies)

      To place him in the cave for present rest:

      And when, at last, he open'd his black eyes,

      Their charity increased about their guest;

      And their compassion grew to such a size,

      It open'd half the turnpike-gates to heaven

      (St. Paul says, 't is the toll which must be given).

      They made a fire,—but such a fire as they

      Upon the moment could contrive with such

      Materials as were cast up round the bay,—

      Some broken planks, and oars, that to the touch

      Were nearly tinder, since so long they lay

      A mast was almost crumbled to a crutch;

      But, by God's grace, here wrecks were in such plenty,

      That there was fuel to have furnish'd twenty.

      He had a bed of furs, and a pelisse,

      For Haidee stripped her sables off to make

      His couch; and, that he might be more at ease,

      And warm, in case by chance he should awake,

      They also gave a petticoat apiece,

      She and her maid—and promised by daybreak

      To pay him a fresh visit, with a dish

      For breakfast, of eggs, coffee, bread, and fish.

      And thus they left him to his lone repose:

      Juan slept like a top, or like the dead,

      Who sleep at last, perhaps (God only knows),

      Just for the present; and in his lull'd head

      Not even a vision of his former woes

      Throbb'd in accursed dreams, which sometimes spread

      Unwelcome visions of our former years,

      Till the eye, cheated, opens thick with tears.

      Young Juan slept all dreamless:—but the maid,

      Who smooth'd his pillow, as she left the den

      Look'd back upon him, and a moment stay'd,

      And turn'd, believing that he call'd again.

      He slumber'd; yet she thought, at least she said

      (The heart will slip, even as the tongue and pen),

      He had pronounced her name—but she forgot

      That at this moment Juan knew it not.

      And pensive to her father's house she went,

      Enjoining silence strict to Zoe, who

      Better than her knew what, in fact, she meant,

      She being wiser by a year or two:

      A year or two 's an age when rightly spent,

      And Zoe spent hers, as most women do,

      In gaining all that useful sort of knowledge

      Which is acquired in Nature's good old college.

      The morn broke, and found Juan slumbering still

      Fast in his cave, and nothing clash'd upon

      His rest; the rushing of the neighbouring rill,

СКАЧАТЬ