Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Джон Мильтон

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СКАЧАТЬ unaccomplished works of Nature’s hand,

      Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mixed,

      Dissolved on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,

      Till final dissolution, wander here;

      Not in the neighbouring moon as some have dreamed;

      Those argent fields more likely habitants,

      Translated Saints, or middle Spirits hold

      Betwixt the angelical and human kind.

      Hither of ill-joined sons and daughters born

      First from the ancient world those giants came

      With many a vain exploit, though then renowned:

      The builders next of Babel on the plain

      Of Sennaar, and still with vain design,

      New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build:

      Others came single; he, who, to be deemed

      A God, leaped fondly into Aetna flames,

      Empedocles; and he, who, to enjoy

      Plato’s Elysium, leaped into the sea,

      Cleombrotus; and many more too long,

      Embryos, and idiots, eremites, and friars

      White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery.

      Here pilgrims roam, that strayed so far to seek

      In Golgotha him dead, who lives in Heaven;

      And they, who to be sure of Paradise,

      Dying, put on the weeds of Dominick,

      Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised;

      They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed,

      And that crystalling sphere whose balance weighs

      The trepidation talked, and that first moved;

      And now Saint Peter at Heaven’s wicket seems

      To wait them with his keys, and now at foot

      Of Heaven’s ascent they lift their feet, when lo

      A violent cross wind from either coast

      Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry

      Into the devious air: Then might ye see

      Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost

      And fluttered into rags; then reliques, beads,

      Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,

      The sport of winds: All these, upwhirled aloft,

      Fly o’er the backside of the world far off

      Into a Limbo large and broad, since called

      The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown

      Long after; now unpeopled, and untrod.

      All this dark globe the Fiend found as he passed,

      And long he wandered, till at last a gleam

      Of dawning light turned thither-ward in haste

      His travelled steps: far distant he descries

      Ascending by degrees magnificent

      Up to the wall of Heaven a structure high;

      At top whereof, but far more rich, appeared

      The work as of a kingly palace-gate,

      With frontispiece of diamond and gold

      Embellished; thick with sparkling orient gems

      The portal shone, inimitable on earth

      By model, or by shading pencil, drawn.

      These stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw

      Angels ascending and descending, bands

      Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled

      To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz

      Dreaming by night under the open sky

      And waking cried, “This is the gate of Heaven.”

      Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood

      There always, but drawn up to Heaven sometimes

      Viewless; and underneath a bright sea flowed

      Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon

      Who after came from earth, failing arrived

      Wafted by Angels, or flew o’er the lake

      Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.

      The stairs were then let down, whether to dare

      The Fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate

      His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss:

      Direct against which opened from beneath,

      Just o’er the blissful seat of Paradise,

      A passage down to the Earth, a passage wide,

      Wider by far than that of after-times

      Over mount Sion, and, though that were large,

      Over the Promised Land to God so dear;

      By which, to visit oft those happy tribes,

      On high behests his angels to and fro

      Passed frequent, and his eye with choice regard

      From Paneas, the fount of Jordan’s flood,

      To Beersaba, where the Holy Land

      Borders on Egypt and the Arabian shore;

      So wide the opening seemed, where bounds were set

      To darkness, such as bound the ocean wave.

      Satan from hence, now on the lower stair,

      That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven-gate,

      Looks down with wonder at the sudden view

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