Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Джон Мильтон

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Yet why not some other Power

      As great might have aspired, and me, though mean,

      Drawn to his part; but other Powers as great

      Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within

      Or from without, to all temptations armed.

      Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand?

      Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse,

      But Heaven’s free love dealt equally to all?

      Be then his love accursed, since love or hate,

      To me alike, it deals eternal woe.

      Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will

      Chose freely what it now so justly rues.

      Me miserable! which way shall I fly

      Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?

      Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell;

      And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep

      Still threatening to devour me opens wide,

      To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.

      O, then, at last relent: Is there no place

      Left for repentance, none for pardon left?

      None left but by submission; and that word

      Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame

      Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduced

      With other promises and other vaunts

      Than to submit, boasting I could subdue

      The Omnipotent. Ay me! they little know

      How dearly I abide that boast so vain,

      Under what torments inwardly I groan,

      While they adore me on the throne of Hell.

      With diadem and scepter high advanced,

      The lower still I fall, only supreme

      In misery: Such joy ambition finds.

      But say I could repent, and could obtain,

      By act of grace, my former state; how soon

      Would hight recall high thoughts, how soon unsay

      What feigned submission swore? Ease would recant

      Vows made in pain, as violent and void.

      For never can true reconcilement grow,

      Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep:

      Which would but lead me to a worse relapse

      And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear

      Short intermission bought with double smart.

      This knows my Punisher; therefore as far

      From granting he, as I from begging, peace;

      All hope excluded thus, behold, instead

      Of us outcast, exil’d, his new delight,

      Mankind created, and for him this world.

      So farewell, hope; and with hope farewell, fear;

      Farewell, remorse! all good to me is lost;

      Evil, be thou my good; by thee at least

      Divided empire with Heaven’s King I hold,

      By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;

      As Man ere long, and this new world, shall know.”

      Thus while he spake, each passion dimmed his face

      Thrice changed with pale, ire, envy, and despair;

      Which marred his borrowed visage, and betrayed

      Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld.

      For heavenly minds from such distempers foul

      Are ever clear. Whereof he soon aware,

      Each perturbation smoothed with outward calm,

      Artificer of fraud; and was the first

      That practised falsehood under saintly show,

      Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge:

      Yet not enough had practised to deceive

      Uriel once warned; whose eye pursued him down

      The way he went, and on the Assyrian mount

      Saw him disfigured, more than could befall

      Spirit of happy sort; his gestures fierce

      He marked and mad demeanour, then alone,

      As he supposed, all unobserved, unseen.

      So on he fares, and to the border comes

      Of Eden, where delicious Paradise,

      Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green,

      As with a rural mound, the champaign head

      Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides

      With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,

      Access denied; and overhead upgrew

      Insuperable height of loftiest shade,

      Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,

      A sylvan scene, and, as the ranks ascend,

      Shade above shade, a woody theatre

      Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops

      The verdurous wall of Paradise upsprung;

      Which to our general sire gave prospect large

      Into his nether empire neighbouring round.

      And higher than that wall a circling row

      Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit,

      Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue,

      Appeared, СКАЧАТЬ