Читать книгу Collected Poems: Volume Two - Alfred Noyes - Страница 41

I

Yoichi Tenko, the painter,

Dwelt by the purple sea,

Painting the peacock islands

Under his willow-tree: Also in temples he painted

Dragons of old Japan,

With a child to look at the pictures—

Little O Kimi San.

Kimi, the child of his brother,

Bright as the moon in May,

White as a lotus lily,

Pink as a plum-tree spray,

Linking her soft arm round him

Sang to his heart for an hour,

Kissed him with ripples of laughter

And lips of the cherry flower.

Child of the old pearl-fisher

Lost in his junk at sea,

Kimi was loved of Tenko

As his own child might be,

Yoichi Tenko the painter,

Wrinkled and grey and old,

Teacher of many disciples

That paid for his dreams with gold.

II

Peonies, peonies crowned the May!

Clad in blue and white array

Came Sawara to the school

Under the silvery willow-tree,

All to learn of Tenko!

Riding on a milk-white mule,

Young and poor and proud was he,

Lissom as a cherry spray

(Peonies, peonies, crowned the day!)

And he rode the golden way

To the school of Tenko.

Swift to learn, beneath his hand

Soon he watched his wonderland

Growing cloud by magic cloud,

Under the silvery willow-tree

In the school of Tenko:

Kimi watched him, young and proud,

Painting by the purple sea,

Lying on the golden sand

Watched his golden wings expand!

(None but Love will understand

All she hid from Tenko.)

He could paint her tree and flower,

Sea and spray and wizard's tower,

With one stroke, now hard, now soft,

Under the silvery willow-tree

In the school of Tenko:

He could fling a bird aloft,

Splash a dragon in the sea,

Crown a princess in her bower,

With one stroke of magic power;

And she watched him, hour by hour,

In the school of Tenko.

Yoichi Tenko, wondering, scanned

All the work of that young hand,

Gazed his kakemonos o'er,

Under the silvery willow-tree

In the school of Tenko:

"I can teach you nothing more,

Thought or craft or mystery;

Let your golden wings expand,

They will shadow half the land,

All the world's at your command,

Come no more to Tenko."

Lying on the golden sand, Kimi watched his wings expand; Wept.—He could not understand Why she wept, said Tenko.

III

So, in her blue kimono,

Pale as the sickle moon

Glimmered thro' soft plum-branches

Blue in the dusk of June,

Stole she, willing and waning,

Frightened and unafraid—

"Take me with you, Sawara,

Over the sea," she said.

Small and sadly beseeching,

Under the willow-tree,

Glimmered her face like a foam-flake

Drifting over the sea:

Pale as a drifting blossom,

Lifted her face to his eyes:

Slowly he gathered and held her

Under the drifting skies.

Poor little face cast backward,

Better to see his own,

Earth and heaven went past them

Drifting: they two, alone

Stood, immortal. He whispered—

"Nothing can part us two!"

Backward her sad little face went

Drifting, and dreamed it true.

"Others are happy," she murmured,

"Maidens and men I have seen;

You are my king, Sawara,

O, let me be your queen!

If I am all too lowly,"

Sadly she strove to smile,

"Let me follow your footsteps,

Your slave for a little while."

Surely, he thought, I have painted

Nothing so fair as this

Moonlit almond blossom

Sweet to fold and kiss, Brow that is filled with music,

Shell of a faery sea,

Eyes like the holy violets

Brimmed with dew for me.

"Wait for Sawara," he whispered,

"Does not his whole heart yearn

Now to his moon-bright maiden?

Wait, for he will return

Rich as the wave on the moon's path

Rushing to claim his bride!"

So they plighted their promise,

And the ebbing sea-wave sighed.

IV

Moon and flower and butterfly,

Earth and heaven went drifting by,

Three long years while Kimi dreamed

Under the silvery willow-tree

In the school of Tenko,

Steadfast while the whole world streamed

Past her tow'rds Eternity;

Steadfast till with one great cry,

Ringing to the gods on high,

Golden wings should blind the sky

And bring him back to Tenko.

Three long years and nought to say

"Sweet, I come the golden way,

Riding royally to the school

Under the silvery willow-tree

Claim my bride of Tenko;

Silver bells on a milk-white mule,

Rose-red sails on an emerald sea!" …

Kimi sometimes went to pray

In the temple nigh the bay,

Dreamed all night and gazed all day

Over the sea from Tenko.

Far away his growing fame

Lit the clouds. No message came

From the sky, whereon she gazed

Under the silvery willow-tree

Far away from Tenko!

Small white hands in the temple raised

Pleaded with the Mystery—

"Stick of incense in the flame,

Though my love forget my name,

Help him, bless him, all the same,

And … bring him back to Tenko!"

Rose-white temple nigh the bay, Hush! for Kimi comes to pray, Dream all night and gaze all day Over the sea from Tenko.

V

So, when the rich young merchant

Showed him his bags of gold,

Yoichi Tenko, the painter,

Gave him her hand to hold,

Said: "You shall wed him, O Kimi."

Softly he lied and smiled—

"Yea, for Sawara is wedded! Let him not mock you, child."

Dumbly she turned and left them,

Never a word or cry

Broke from her lips' grey petals

Under the drifting sky:

Down to the spray and the rainbows,

Where she had watched him of old

Painting the rose-red islands,

Painting the sand's wet gold,

Down to their dreams of the sunset,

Frail as a flower's white ghost,

Lonely and lost she wandered

Down to the darkening coast; Lost in the drifting midnight,

Weeping, desolate, blind.

Many went out to seek her:

Never a heart could find.

Yoichi Tenko, the painter,

Plucked from his willow-tree

Two big paper lanterns

And ran to the brink of the sea;

Over his head he held them,

Crying, and only heard,

Somewhere, out in the darkness,

The cry of a wandering bird.

VI

Peonies, peonies thronged the May

When in royal-rich array

Came Sawara to the school

Under the silvery willow-tree—

To the school of Tenko!

Silver bells on a milk-white mule,

Rose-red sails on an emerald sea!

Over the bloom of the cherry spray,

Peonies, peonies dimmed the day;

And he rode the royal way

Back to Yoichi Tenko.

Yoichi Tenko, half afraid,

Whispered, "Wed some other maid;

Kimi left me all alone

Under the silvery willow-tree,

Left me," whispered Tenko,

"Kimi had a heart of stone!"—

"Kimi, Kimi? Who is she?

Kimi? Ah—the child that played

Round the willow-tree. She prayed

Often; and, whate'er I said,

She believed it, Tenko."

He had come to paint anew

Those dim isles of rose and blue,

For a palace far away,

Under the silvery willow-tree—

So he said to Tenko;

And he painted, day by day,

Golden visions of the sea.

No, he had not come to woo;

Yet, had Kimi proven true,

Doubtless he had loved her too,

Hardly less than Tenko.

Since the thought was in his head,

He would make his choice and wed;

And a lovely maid he chose

Under the silvery willow-tree.

"Fairer far," said Tenko.

"Kimi had a twisted nose,

And a foot too small, for me,

And her face was dull as lead!"

"Nay, a flower, be it white or red,

Is a flower," Sawara said! "So it is," said Tenko.

VII

Great Sawara, the painter,

Sought, on a day of days,

One of the peacock islands

Out in the sunset haze:

Rose-red sails on the water

Carried him quickly nigh;

There would he paint him a wonder

Worthy of Hokusai.

Lo, as he leapt o'er the creaming

Roses of faery foam,

Out of the green-lipped caverns

Under the isle's blue dome, White as a drifting snow-flake,

White as the moon's white flame,

White as a ghost from the darkness,

Little O Kimi came.

"Long I have waited, Sawara,

Here in our sunset isle,

Sawara, Sawara, Sawara,

Look on me once, and smile;

Face I have watched so long for,

Hands I have longed to hold,

Sawara, Sawara, Sawara,

Why is your heart so cold?"

Surely, he thought, I have painted

Nothing so fair as this

Moonlit almond blossom

Sweet to fold and kiss. …

"Kimi," he said, "I am wedded!

Hush, for it could not be!"

"Kiss me one kiss," she whispered,

"Me also, even me."

Small and terribly drifting

Backward, her sad white face

Lifted up to Sawara

Once, in that lonely place,

White as a drifting blossom

Under his wondering eyes,

Slowly he gathered and held her

Under the drifting skies.

"Others are happy," she whispered,

"Maidens and men I have seen:

Be happy, be happy, Sawara!

The other—shall be—your queen!

Kiss me one kiss for parting."

Trembling she lifted her head,

Then like a broken blossom

It fell on his arm. She was dead.

VIII

Much impressed, Sawara straight

(Though the hour was growing late)

Made a sketch of Kimi lying

By the lonely, sighing sea,

Brought it back to Tenko.

Tenko looked it over crying

(Under the silvery willow-tree).

"You have burst the golden gate!

You have conquered Time and Fate!

Hokusai is not so great!

This is Art," said Tenko!