Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Джон Мильтон

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СКАЧАТЬ of her beauty, and submissive charms,

      Smiled with superior love, as Jupiter

      On Juno smiles, when he impregns the clouds

      That shed Mayflowers; and pressed her matron lip

      With kisses pure: Aside the Devil turned

      For envy; yet with jealous leer malign

      Eyed them askance, and to himself thus plained.

      “Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus these two,

      Imparadised in one another’s arms,

      The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill

      Of bliss on bliss; while I to Hell am thrust,

      Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,

      Among our other torments not the least,

      Still unfulfilled with pain of longing pines.

      Yet let me not forget what I have gained

      From their own mouths: All is not theirs, it seems;

      One fatal tree there stands, of knowledge called,

      Forbidden them to taste: Knowledge forbidden

      Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord

      Envy them that? Can it be sin to know?

      Can it be death? And do they only stand

      By ignorance? Is that their happy state,

      The proof of their obedience and their faith?

      O fair foundation laid whereon to build

      Their ruin! hence I will excite their minds

      With more desire to know, and to reject

      Envious commands, invented with design

      To keep them low, whom knowledge might exalt

      Equal with Gods: aspiring to be such,

      They taste and die: What likelier can ensue

      But first with narrow search I must walk round

      This garden, and no corner leave unspied;

      A chance but chance may lead where I may meet

      Some wandering Spirit of Heaven by fountain side,

      Or in thick shade retired, from him to draw

      What further would be learned. Live while ye may,

      Yet happy pair; enjoy, till I return,

      Short pleasures, for long woes are to succeed!”

      So saying, his proud step he scornful turned,

      But with sly circumspection, and began

      Through wood, through waste, o’er hill, o’er dale, his roam

      Meanwhile in utmost longitude, where Heaven

      With earth and ocean meets, the setting sun

      Slowly descended, and with right aspect

      Against the eastern gate of Paradise

      Levelled his evening rays: It was a rock

      Of alabaster, piled up to the clouds,

      Conspicuous far, winding with one ascent

      Accessible from earth, one entrance high;

      The rest was craggy cliff, that overhung

      Still as it rose, impossible to climb.

      Betwixt these rocky pillars Gabriel sat,

      Chief of the angelic guards, awaiting night;

      About him exercised heroic games

      The unarmed youth of Heaven, but nigh at hand

      Celestial armoury, shields, helms, and spears,

      Hung high with diamond flaming, and with gold.

      Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even

      On a sun-beam, swift as a shooting star

      In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fired

      Impress the air, and shows the mariner

      From what point of his compass to beware

      Impetuous winds: He thus began in haste.

      “Gabriel, to thee thy course by lot hath given

      Charge and strict watch, that to this happy place

      No evil thing approach or enter in.

      This day at hight of noon came to my sphere

      A Spirit, zealous, as he seemed, to know

      More of the Almighty’s works, and chiefly Man,

      God’s latest image: I described his way

      Bent all on speed, and marked his aery gait;

      But in the mount that lies from Eden north,

      Where he first lighted, soon discerned his looks

      Alien from Heaven, with passions foul obscured:

      Mine eye pursued him still, but under shade

      Lost sight of him: One of the banished crew,

      I fear, hath ventured from the deep, to raise

      New troubles; him thy care must be to find.”

      To whom the winged warrior thus returned.

      “Uriel, no wonder if thy perfect sight,

      Amid the sun’s bright circle where thou sitst,

      See far and wide: In at this gate none pass

      The vigilance here placed, but such as come

      Well known from Heaven; and since meridian hour

      No creature thence: If Spirit of other sort,

      So minded, have o’er-leaped these earthly bounds

      On purpose, hard thou knowest it to exclude

СКАЧАТЬ