Innocence Once Lost - Religious Classics Collection. Джон Мильтон

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СКАЧАТЬ the first circle of the prison blind;

       Ofttimes we of the mountain hold discourse

       Which has our nurses ever with itself.

      Euripides is with us, Antiphon,

       Simonides, Agatho, and many other

       Greeks who of old their brows with laurel decked.

      There some of thine own people may be seen,

       Antigone, Deiphile and Argia,

       And there Ismene mournful as of old.

      There she is seen who pointed out Langia;

       There is Tiresias' daughter, and there Thetis,

       And there Deidamia with her sisters."

      Silent already were the poets both,

       Attent once more in looking round about,

       From the ascent and from the walls released;

      And four handmaidens of the day already

       Were left behind, and at the pole the fifth

       Was pointing upward still its burning horn,

      What time my Guide: "I think that tow'rds the edge

       Our dexter shoulders it behoves us turn,

       Circling the mount as we are wont to do."

      Thus in that region custom was our ensign;

       And we resumed our way with less suspicion

       For the assenting of that worthy soul

      They in advance went on, and I alone

       Behind them, and I listened to their speech,

       Which gave me lessons in the art of song.

      But soon their sweet discourses interrupted

       A tree which midway in the road we found,

       With apples sweet and grateful to the smell.

      And even as a fir-tree tapers upward

       From bough to bough, so downwardly did that;

       I think in order that no one might climb it.

      On that side where our pathway was enclosed

       Fell from the lofty rock a limpid water,

       And spread itself abroad upon the leaves.

      The Poets twain unto the tree drew near,

       And from among the foliage a voice

       Cried: "Of this food ye shall have scarcity."

      Then said: "More thoughtful Mary was of making

       The marriage feast complete and honourable,

       Than of her mouth which now for you responds;

      And for their drink the ancient Roman women

       With water were content; and Daniel

       Disparaged food, and understanding won.

      The primal age was beautiful as gold;

       Acorns it made with hunger savorous,

       And nectar every rivulet with thirst.

      Honey and locusts were the aliments

       That fed the Baptist in the wilderness;

       Whence he is glorious, and so magnified

      As by the Evangel is revealed to you."

      XXIII. Forese. Reproof of immodest Florentine Women.

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      The while among the verdant leaves mine eyes

       I riveted, as he is wont to do

       Who wastes his life pursuing little birds,

      My more than Father said unto me: "Son,

       Come now; because the time that is ordained us

       More usefully should be apportioned out."

      I turned my face and no less soon my steps

       Unto the Sages, who were speaking so

       They made the going of no cost to me;

      And lo! were heard a song and a lament,

       "Labia mea, Domine," in fashion

       Such that delight and dolence it brought forth.

      "O my sweet Father, what is this I hear?"

       Began I; and he answered: "Shades that go

       Perhaps the knot unloosing of their debt."

      In the same way that thoughtful pilgrims do,

       Who, unknown people on the road o'ertaking,

       Turn themselves round to them, and do not stop,

      Even thus, behind us with a swifter motion

       Coming and passing onward, gazed upon us

       A crowd of spirits silent and devout.

      Each in his eyes was dark and cavernous,

       Pallid in face, and so emaciate

       That from the bones the skin did shape itself.

      I do not think that so to merest rind

       Could Erisichthon have been withered up

       By famine, when most fear he had of it.

      Thinking within myself I said: "Behold,

       This is the folk who lost Jerusalem,

       When Mary made a prey of her own son."

      Their sockets were like rings without the gems;

       Whoever in the face of men reads 'omo'

       Might well in these have recognised the 'm.'

      Who would believe the odour of an apple,

       Begetting longing, could consume them so,

       And that of water, without knowing how?

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