Читать книгу Collected Poems: Volume One - Alfred Noyes - Страница 28

Hold by right and rule by fear Till the slowly broadening sphere Melting through the skies above Merge into the sphere of love.

Hold by might until you find Might is powerless o'er the mind: Hold by Truth until you see, Though they bow before the wind, Its towers can mock at liberty.

Time, the seneschal, is blind; Time is blind: and what are we? Captives of Infinity, Claiming through Truth's prison bars Kinship with the wandering stars.

O, who could tell the wild weird sights

We saw in all the days and nights

We travelled through those forests old.

We saw the griffons on white cliffs,

Among fantastic hieroglyphs,

Guarding enormous heaps of gold:

We saw the Ghastroi—curious men

Who dwell, like tigers, in a den,

And howl whene'er the moon is cold;

They stripe themselves with red and black

And ride upon the yellow Yak.

Their dens are always ankle-deep

With twisted knives, and in their sleep

They often cut themselves; they say

That if you wish to live in peace

The surest way is not to cease

Collecting knives; and never a day

Can pass, unless they buy a few;

And as their enemies buy them too

They all avert the impending fray,

And starve their children and their wives

To buy the necessary knives.

* * * *

The forest leapt with shadowy shapes

As we came to the great black Tower of Apes:

But we gave them purple figs and grapes

In alabaster amphoras:

We gave them curious kinds of fruit

With betel nuts and orris-root,

And then they let us pass:

And when we reached the Tower of Snakes

We gave them soft white honey-cakes,

And warm sweet milk in bowls of brass:

And on the hundredth eve we found

The City of the Secret Wound.

We saw the mystic blossoms blow

Round the City, far below;

Faintly in the sunset glow

We saw the soft blue glory flow O'er many a golden garden gate:

And o'er the tiny dark green seas

Of tamarisks and tulip-trees,

Domes like golden oranges

Dream aloft elate.

And clearer, clearer as we went,

We heard from tower and battlement

A whisper, like a warning, sent

From watchers out of sight;

And clearer, brighter, as we drew

Close to the walls, we saw the blue

Flashing of plumes where peacocks flew

Thro' zones of pearly light.

On either side, a fat black bonze

Guarded the gates of red-wrought bronze,

Blazoned with blue sea-dragons

And mouths of yawning flame;

Down the road of dusty red,

Though their brown feet ached and bled,

Our coolies went with joyful tread:

Like living fans the gates outspread

And opened as we came.